Resident Evil Norrel
by wolffanatic2002
Summary: Jess' team has been dispatched to investigate the disapearance of their fellow agents. What secrets lie in store for them? Standard disclaimer.
1. Now It's Them We Chase

In the beginning, it was Umbrella Co. They were popular and high in power all over the world. No one realized what they were doing, how many lives would be lost to the illegal experiments. One fatal mistake by a greedy, selfish scientist led to the demise of a town and ultimately the end of Umbrella Co. But their experiments lived on. They continued with a new organization, Byole Co., an equally popular and powerful company. Now it's them we chase. These are our stories. 


	2. Prologue

**Resident Evil**

**Prologue**

Four undercover men, dressed in stolen lab coats walked through the halls of a lab that most people didn't know existed. They were on a mission. Recover a vial of a very lethal and equally illegal virus and report back to HQ. Easy enough.

The men filed into an empty room. The room where the experiments were made and results kept. Where the virus was kept. They steered clear of the vision of the video camera, and unplugged it.

"Okay men, three minutes at the max, I want to be out of here in two, let's go," said the leader.

"Yes sir," came the reply.

The men opened a small refrigerator-like box which held the needed vials. They grabbed two vials and walked out of the room and back down the halls to the entrance.

"Stop right there!" said a man clad in black body armor and clothing. His shirt read: Umbrella/Byol Co. Security.

"Keep going men!" yelled the leader, aiming his gun at the security man, firing twice. He fell but not before he fired a bullet which hit the pack of one of the agents. They ran around a corner and checked the damage. One of the two vials had exploded, the other was cracked.

"Leave it," said the leader.

He knew they were done for. They all did. There was no getting around it. The agent took the vial that was cracked and dropped the pack. They ran, being chased by many scientists and guards. The agent holding the vial threw it and hit one of them, shattering it all over his coat. Horrified, most of the group stopped. The rest chased the team into a room with no way out. They surrendered and waited for whatever was to come to them. One of the scientists stepped towards the security guards.

"Take them to him," he said.

The men were knocked unconscious and hauled away. When they came to, they were tied up in a dark room. A mysterious figure stood in front of them.

"Good day," he said to them. "You are the men who have ruined my work." They said nothing, struggling with their tight bindings. "For this you shall die."

He walked out and the men heard a clicking noise, like the door to a cage opening. They heard growling and snarling, coming closer and closer.

From somewhere in the room a radio buzzed to life. "I hope you men like my experiments. They're subjects I tested the virus on only two days ago. I'm sure they'll be happy to make your acquaintance," said the man's voice.

The creatures were on the team seconds later. Screams could be heard from the building in the middle of no where. Silently, the man flicked his smoking cigar through the busted window of the building and walked quickly away. The cigar landed in a puddle of gasoline and the building exploded.


	3. Stepping Into Hell

1

Jess stared out the dusty window of the city bus. She watched as the small, secluded town came closer and closer. The early June sun beat down, its lasting summer rays pounding on everything.

What was waiting for them this time? What should they expect? Would this be like the last time?

She turned away from the window and looked at her partners, Sarah and Brad. The two of them sat next to each other on the opposite side of the bus, sleeping.

Sarah was twenty-four years old -a little more than a year older than Jess- was Jess' best friend since elementary school. Sarah had sapphire blue eyes and long, thick, wavy, red hair. She had her favorite dark green tank top and tight blue jeans on.

Brad was twenty-five years old and Sarah's husband of two years. Brad had dark brown eyes and scruffy, dark brown hair. He was wearing a black sweatshirt and baggy jeans (with the occasional hole here and there). His headphones were around his neck; the cord trailing down to his sweatshirt pocket where his hands and CD player rested.

Jess looked away from them and glanced around the bus. It was quiet; the three of them were the only ones on board apart from the driver. The old, hard, brown leather seats ran in two rows; one on each side with two seats in each row. There were metal bars on the roof of the bus for anyone who was standing to hang on to. The windows and floor were dirty and the seats needed to be cleaned but Jess didn't care. They wouldn't be on the bus much longer.

She got up and put the money she had to pay for their long bus ride in the little black collection box, sat down, then picked up her bag and put it on the seat next to her. She looked out the window one last time as they passed the city limit sign. It read:

Norrel Population 6,254

'Six thousand two hundred and four people, this isn't a small town after all. We could have some trouble if the reports are true…' Jess thought as she gathered her things. She walked across to where Sarah and Brad slept and plopped into the seat in front of them. "Hey guys, time to wake up, we're almost there."

The two of them stirred, and then woke. "How long were we asleep?" asked Sarah, looking out her window. They were driving into town, passing a church and a grocery store.

"About two hours, maybe a little more. Do you know where the hotel is?" Jess asked.

"It's supposed to be about two blocks from the bus station and I figured we'd just walk. I think we can get a map of the town when we get there," said Sarah picking up her bag. "Speaking of the station, it's just ahead, did you pay the driver?"

"Yeah," came Jess' reply as the bus slowed down.

"This place seems a little boring, how many people live here?" Brad asked looking out the windows.

"The sign we passed said there was just over six thousand people here," said Jess.

They grabbed their bags, stepped off the bus and walked into the tiny brick building that the bus was parked in front of. They walked up to the desk, rang the bell and waited. Jess set her bag down and looked around.

The room they were in looked old and was very small, with just enough room to park a car without hitting the walls. The floor was covered in pile after pile of papers and books leaving almost no place to stand. A path led to and from the door to the desk and back. What little floor you could see was green tile, worn to almost a greyish color. The white walls were covered with pictures of wolves, bears, moose, caribou and various buses driving along Alaskan roads.

Jess looked back at the large desk that blocked off the rest of the room; it was a huge mess; papers and books everywhere, almost worse than the floor. Behind the desk was another room, much cleaner, with only a few papers strewn here and there.

"Who is it?" came a bored female voice from somewhere in the other room.

"Travelers, uh, tourists. We were wondering if you might have a map of your town," Sarah answered.

"Tourists huh? Well okay, here," she said as a rolled up paper flew over the desk (just missing Brad's head by a few inches).

"Whoa, thanks… I think," Brad said, catching the map.  
"I doubt you'll be staying long with what's been going on here lately. Have a nice day."

The three of them walked back outside and stopped to look at the map. Just as Sarah had said, the hotel was about two blocks north of the bus station. They put the map away and started walking.

"That thing the lady said back there was a little disturbing. Maybe we're too late?" Sarah suggested.

"Well things don't look too bad around here, nothing like what would be the norm if an outbreak had occurred some time ago," Jess said. "It does take time for a whole town, even a small one, to get a full scale infection of its entire population, so maybe we still have some time. She could have been talking about something that has nothing to do with the mission anyway. We did just get here; we won't know what's been going on around this town until we get to the hotel."

"All good points, I'll forget about worrying until we've had a chance to look at the information. How are we going to get it anyhow?" Sarah asked. "After all it is classified. We wouldn't want some 'average Joe' getting his hands on it and reading up on all our Intel."

"I can answer that one," Brad said, "It's being given to us at the desk. One of us has to ask for it after we check in. We'll just have to hope that no 'average Joe' got his hands on it."

"That's risky." said Sarah wrinkling her nose.

For a moment the three of them were silent as the same thoughts went through their minds. It would be horrible if someone got a hold of those papers, especially if the people at Byol Co. somehow got it. If that happened the mission would be over and so would they.

About ten minutes later they walked into the small hotel. Jess went straight to the counter. "One room for three, the reservations were made last week."

"Ms. Allard?" asked the woman behind the desk. "May I see your I.D.?"

"Here."

"…Okay, good. Your room was paid for in advance; we have you in for two weeks. Here's your key, your room is on the second floor, have a nice stay," the woman replied.

"Yes, that sounds right, thank you," Jess confirmed, putting her I.D. back in her pocket, grabbing the key and picking up her bag.

She walked back to the others, showed them the key and started towards the elevator. Sarah and Brad followed and then wrestled to push the elevator button. Jess backed away from them and rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

'Why do they have to do this all the time?' she thought.

Sarah finally climbed over Brad and pushed it. They all walked in, Jess pressed the button to the second floor.

"Do you two like being back in Junior High in the middle of a public hotel?" Jess asked, holding back a giggle.

"Sure, you gotta have a little fun now and then," Brad answered.

Sarah just laughed as the elevator came to a stop and opened up.

They walked down a long, narrow, low-lit hallway. They took a left halfway down the hall and continued walking. Finally, Jess stopped in front of a door numbered 284. "This is it," she said, inserting the key into the hole.

"I get the bed closest to the kitchen!" Brad exclaimed.

"Whatever," Sarah replied rolling her eyes.

They walked in, put their bags down, turned the lights on and looked around. Three small, neatly made-up beds were set up against the right wall, each with its own bed-side table and lamp. The sheets were heavy down comforters with a moose and caribou pattern. The floor was covered with a thin and very worn blue carpet.

On the wall across from the beds were two large dressers, one holding a small mirror. There was a desk with a small T.V. and a telephone in between the two dressers. The far wall had a large window looking out on the town.

The other room was a small kitchen with a small refrigerator, sink, stove and a microwave. In the middle of this room, there was a small oak table with three oak chairs. There was another large window by the table.

Lastly there was a small, all white bathroom in the hall between the two rooms, next to a small closet.

"Wow, this place looks about as boring as the town," said Brad plopping onto one of the beds.

Jess opened the drawers and pulled out the towels that were inside. She put some in the top drawer of the first dresser and Sarah put the rest in the bathroom. Then Jess and Sarah began putting their other things away. After doing some exploring, Brad did the same.

"Okay, I'm done so I'll go head down to the desk and grab the stuff he sent us," said Jess.

"Okay, we're not going anywhere," replied Sarah.

Jess walked out the door and to the elevator. In no time she was in line at the desk. When it was her turn, she asked the lady if there was a package for them.

"Um, yes, I'll get it for you, one minute please," said the lady. She walked through a door behind her and emerged with a medium size box and a manila envelope, both labeled with Jess' name.

"Here you go," the lady said handing her the items.

"Thank you," Jess said and walked off before the lady had time to reply.

Back in the room, she locked the door and sitting on the bed closest to it, opened up the envelope. Brad and Sarah were sitting on the middle bed watching her. Inside the envelope were a bunch of photos, a letter and some other papers. Jess read the letter out loud:  
Team,

This mission should be much simpler than the last. This time the lab is located about five miles south of the city (the only road in and out of Norrel comes in from the east) and has been built under the house and hunting lodge business of James Rowley, one of Byol Co.'s top workers.

He happens to be one of the richest employees in the company and works directly for Dr. Gene Fredric, the creator of the Alpha Virus. I have included a report on the virus done about two months ago. It should have come in the folder. The other papers are the local news reports for Norrel over the past couple of months. 

The photos are of some of the activity in the lab, some of the personnel and some of their experiments. The photos are estimated to be about six months old. Some of the information that came with the photos might be a little old so be on the look out for any current information that you can find.

The box contains some items for the three of you to use. Your mission is as follows: 

-infiltrate Rowley's lodge

-get into the lab

-get the information we need

-get a sample of the Alpha Virus 

Be warned that the last team we sent into this lab a month ago was never heard from again. It is assumed that the four of them were caught and either killed or used for experiments. If you can, find out what happened to them. We do not believe that the virus has gotten out but be on alert.

It won't be easy but it is necessary. You're the finest agents we've got and are the only ones we can depend on to complete this mission.  
Do not fail.

Jess finished the letter and put it down. So typical of their agency, 'you're the best we've got so we can send you to what may be your death without second thoughts'. Oh well, that's how it was and that's how it would always be until Byol Co. and every other company like them was brought down.

"That's just about the same letter we get every time, what else did he send?" asked Sarah.

"Lots of things, pictures, documents, newspapers, Intel for our mission, whatever's in the box, etcetera," replied Jess. "Hey, here's the report about the new virus."

"Okay, read that then," said Brad.

Jess picked up the report and read it:

WARNING: TOP SECRET

Alpha Virus Report

The Alpha Virus, or A-virus, created by Dr. Gene Fredric, is a new and improved version of both the T and G-viruses.

The A-virus turns its victims into "creatures" within thirty minutes of infection as apposed to an hour with the T and G-viruses.

It is transmitted through many of the same ways and even in ways the other viruses could not be. It can survive on a solid surface, such as a desk or a floor without nutrients for approximately two years and still infect someone.

The virus is protean, changing from liquid, to airborne, to blood transfusion, depending on its environment, though it can only remain airborne for the first twenty-four hours of its life. It can live up to seven months inside a body whether or not the body is alive. The only way to kill the virus is to inject it into the body of a subject, kill the subject, then burn the body.

The A-virus causes much the same effect on its subjects as the T and G-viruses do, though infected subjects live longer and have slightly elevated levels of intelligence. Physical differences include: much greater strength, large teeth and nails/claws, better eyesight and slower decomposition of the body. The subjects also are more aggressive.

Subjects with O-negative and O-positive blood types become the strongest types of creatures, such as the past Tyrant, and Nemesis experiments. This also bares similarities to the case of William Burkin, the man who created and injected himself with the G-virus after suffering a mortal wound. Subjects with other blood types become the zombie versions of the creatures.

Symptoms of infection are as follows; nausea, vomiting, aches and pains, loss of color in skin, headache and dizziness until the victim looses consciousness approximately twenty to twenty-five minutes after infection occurs. By this time, the infection will have spread through the body too greatly for the anti-virus to have any effect.

There are currently fifty vials of the A-virus and twenty vials of the anti-virus in storage inside the lab.

"That's it. Here's a paper about Rowley's lodge," Jess said putting the report down and picking up a new paper. "It says that he started the lodge about ten years ago. He came here with the company and set up the lodge for local hunters. He put the price at $5,000.00 per person. This guy really is nuts. He takes the hunters out into the middle of nowhere and brings them back after a few days. That's if he's not working in the lab. If he is apparently he sends someone else to take the hunters out," she said. "It looks like he has been under investigation because he took someone out and the guy disappeared. From the sound of this I'd say it's happened more than once. Let's open the box now," she said getting up for a moment. She grabbed her pocketknife and slit the top open.

She ripped the cardboard up and began pulling things out. There were three handguns, one for each of them, and a large number of spare clips. There were three radios and three small-sized sets of equipment packs. There were also a number of forged I.D. cards for gaining access to the lab and other facilities they'd need to get into. There were a few other items with less significance in the box, but Jess just put them and the box under her bed and handed out the others. They all put their things in the small drawers of the tables next to their beds, hiding them with a blanket or handkerchief. When that was all taken care of, the trio finished looking through the rest of the papers from the envelope.

Jess picked up the newspapers and began reading while Sarah looked at some of the Intel papers and Brad looked at the photos. Jess grabbed the box from under the bed and threw the letter and the Alpha Virus report in it and then picked up the newspapers again.

"Uh-oh, it looks like this is going to be a little more complicated than we thought," said Jess looking through an article out of a paper from two days earlier. "This explains why no one is infected around here… at least for now."

"What? What happened?" asked Sarah and Brad, almost in unison.

"This paper says that there was some kind of accident in Rowley's lodge. The whole place was cut off from local police and emergency personnel after a fire broke out. There were gates up and a sniper started shooting at them from some unknown position when they tried to cut through the fence. The fire ended up burning itself out and neither the emergency personnel nor the police ever gained access to the lodge. Apparently no one was hurt from the shooting or the fire," said Jess.

She continued on as she read more of the article, "They just left after the fire died because they didn't want to 'risk it'. Now two days later, they're considering the case closed and have decided not to look into it any further even though the sniper was never caught. Sounds really weird. Someone must be paying them not to go after the sniper or something because I don't think they'd just let him go. He could start shooting people all over town for crying out loud, it'd be no problem for him. I'm guessing they did that to try and keep their secret from being discovered."

"Yeah, no kidding. Well, we have to go in there anyway so I guess we're just going to have to deal with it. That is, if there's anyone even alive in there. This Intel says that the only reasons they would put up that kind of barrier could be one of two things. Either they found out that one of their employees is a traitor but they aren't sure who it is so they didn't want anyone getting in or out until he or she is found or an outbreak occurred. We already know what goes on if that happens and with the new virus it'll be a miracle if anyone survived," said Sarah taking the report out of the box and looking it over.

"The twenty-four hour period of possible air-borne infection has passed but you're right, I don't think it's possible for someone to have survived. That makes our mission a little easier, there won't be any security issues but in turn it also makes it a ton harder. The whole place will be crawling with zombies and other lovely creatures," said Jess with a sarcastic tone. "We'll have to be extra careful and take some of the anti-virus back with us if we can find it."

After looking at the rest of the papers and photos Jess and Sarah put them all back in the box, hid it in the closet and threw away the envelope. When everything looked natural again, Jess pulled out the map and looked for a restaurant. There was one right down the street. She put the map away, looked out the window, saw the place she was looking for and grabbed her jacket. "Anyone up for dinner?" she asked.

"Not right now. Those pictures were a little graphic and well, I guess it isn't dark outside but still," said Brad.

"Oh, is Brad scared?" Jess teased as she threw her jacket back in the closet. They could call for room service whenever they wanted. She walked over to her things and started looking for something to do.

"No, I'm just not in the mood for a stroll right this minute," said Brad trying to defend himself.

"Yeah, well, okay then," said Sarah, edging him in the side with her elbow. She sat next to him and they started playing cards.

Sarah and Brad both jumped when 'Its My Life' suddenly came blaring out of Jess' CD players' speakers at nearly full volume. "Oops, sorry guys," laughed Jess as she turned it down.

"No problem, hey, is this your burned CD?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah, it's my second actually," answered Jess.

"Cool, what's on it?" asked Brad.

Jess threw him the CD case and walked into the bathroom to wash up. She looked into the mirror. Her bright orange t-shirt and blue jeans needed to be washed but hey, they worked for now. She put her dark brown hair (though at the time it was dyed to look reddish) up in a ponytail. She washed her face and stared into the reflection of her eyes. She had always gotten attention when it came to her eyes because she had one light brown eye and one dark brown eye.

When she was done she walked back to the beds and picked up the phone. She called up room service and ordered three burgers and three drinks for dinner and then turned on the T.V. She flipped through the channels until she happened upon a local news program. A short bald man in an expensive-looking suite was forecasting the weather. About five minutes later a woman started talking about local events.

Jess turned it up and listened. The first two stories were not important: plans to build a new shopping center in the middle of town and a girl in the local middle school starting a group to help train dogs for older people. Then finally the lady said something that caught the attention of all of them.

"In another story, two people are missing as of yesterday. Names have not been released but according to the families, the two were out hiking near the Rowley Hunting Lodge where the fire broke out two days ago. The police and families of the two will be out searching for them during the next week. More will be told on this story as the information is released," finished the lady. "That's it for today, tune in tomorrow for your local news."

Jess turned off the T.V. and looked at the others. "That's really strange. Something must have gotten out."

"Yeah, oh look, our food is here," said Sarah getting up to let the waiter in.

"Thank you," said Sarah paying the man. He nodded and walked out. The three of them grabbed their meals and sat down to eat.

"Nothing seems too messed up around here but I think that's going to change if we don't complete this mission and destroy the lab soon," said Jess through bites of food.

"Yeah, we need to call the Boss and find out when he wants us to go down there and what exactly he wants us to do," added Brad.

"We should also let him know what's been going on around here lately," said Sarah.

"Yup, in fact," said Jess putting down her burger, "I'll call now and get this all straightened out."

She dialed the number to their command center and waited.

"Who is this?" came a voice from the other side.

"This is Agent 63. I need to talk to the Boss, can you patch me through?" answered Jess.

"What's your code?"

"678230D"

"One moment please," the voice said. There was about a second or two of silence then she heard the line click over.

"Boss?" asked Jess.

"Yes, is that you Jess?" he questioned.

"Yes sir, I called to let you know that we got here and well, it's looking like the virus got out, though it hasn't gotten past the hunting lodge area. We just heard today that two people went missing around there yesterday. The three of us were also wondering when you wanted us to start the mission and if there were any changes in our objectives," stated Jess.

"Well, now that I have that information, I'd like the three of you to wait until a fourth man can get there. He's new but he checks out and he seems very bright. I'll send him out on the next bus to Norrel immediately. His name is Tim Packard," he said.

"What? But sir, we work alone!"

"Not this time Jess. Now I have to go, I have a meeting in fifteen minutes."

"But…" started Jess but the line went dead before she could finish. She hung up the phone, gave it a disgusted look, then looked at Sarah and Brad.

"Well, what did he say?" asked Sarah.

"He said that he wants us to wait, he's sending some guy named Tim Packard to 'help us'. I tried to tell him no but he wouldn't listen to me. Oh well, I guess it won't hurt," said Jess falling onto her bed to finish her dinner.

"I don't agree about that but hey, I guess we really don't have much of a choice do we?" said Sarah.

"Nope," said Jess shortly.

After dinner, the three of them played a few games of cards, and then dressed for bed; it was 10:37.

"Well, g'night all, we'll check this guy out when he gets here I guess," said Jess climbing into bed.

"Good night," she heard the other two say as they climbed into bed as well. 


	4. Investigating

2

"This is Packard."

"What do you have for me?"

"I'm in. Their "Boss" has assigned me to a team that's in your area right now. If you're still at the lab that is."

"I'm close but not there, the virus got out. One of the stupid workers dropped a vial. No one down there got out alive, I happened to be out of the building at the time. I haven't been back yet. Are they planning to get inside?"

"Yes, they plan to get information and a sample of the virus. Pretty much the same thing they try every time, from what I hear."

"Yes well, do whatever you want at their headquarters and then leave for Norrel as soon as you can. I'll be waiting for you. I will let you know what I want from you when you arrive. As soon as I am done with you, you can go report to the team you're supposed to be working with."

"Okay, I might just go ahead and destroy this place, what do you think?"

"As I said, do whatever you want, I don't care, call me when you're on your way."

Click.

"Yes sir."

3 

Jess woke suddenly in the dark. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the low light as she looked around the room. She sat up and grabbed her gun from the drawer. She slowly walked to the door, opened it, and looked down the hall. She saw no one and after a brief moment, closed and locked it.

"What's going on? What are you doing Jess?" asked Sarah waking up.

"Quiet, there's something outside," replied Jess whispering.

She walked to the window and peeked around the curtains. The light made her blink for a second, then she refocused. Nothing. She sat there a minute leaning against the wall with her gun. "Weird. Oh well," she said aloud, climbing back into bed.

"Did you see anything?" asked Sarah.

"No. I guess I was just dreaming," replied Jess.

4 

Outside, a creature -not alive, yet not dead- sat on the roof of a concrete building. The midnight sun shone down on the creature's warm, bloody muscles. It didn't have any skin left; that had rotted away with its true life, with the infection.

It licked its razor sharp teeth with its equally deadly tongue. It was hungry. It needed flesh, human flesh.

With inhuman agility the creature turned and with its claws, climbed down the side of the building and slinked away into the night.

5

The next morning Jess sat at the table with a fresh cup of coffee. She slowly swirled her spoon through the dark liquid as she thought about the night before. She was sure she had heard something. Something climbing on the roof or the walls maybe. It had to have been something. She was sure she hadn't dreamt it. But then, what could it have been?

Jess got up from the table, poured the remnants of the cup down the sink, took a shower and got dressed in jeans and a large blue t-shirt. As she walked by the window in the bedroom, she noticed that there were a large number of people flocking to the back of the building. Some of them were still in their robes and pajamas.

"Hey guys, get up, it looks like something's going on outside," said Jess grabbing her jacket and heading for the door. She walked out into the hallway; she could hear Sarah and Brad getting up, a little confused.

The two of them met her in record time, as she was about to leave through one of the back doors to the building. Sure enough, there was a crowd outside looking at the wall and ground. As the three of them walked closer, Jess saw large markings embedded into ground and all the way up wall that were very familiar and very disturbing.

"Ah crap. Do you guys recognize this?" asked Jess feeling slightly exasperated.

"Oh man, yup," came the replies.

The "markings" on the wall and street were about three to four feet long and about half a foot wide. The team knew only one thing that could make such indents in concrete and asphalt.

"Team, I think we have a Licker on the loose," said Jess quietly as they walked away from the scene. "I think that the new virus makes them bigger and possibly a lot stronger than the first two viruses did. That could be a problem."

"How soon do you think it'll start attacking people?" asked Sarah.

"How long will it be until the Licker isn't the only thing crawling around out here?" Brad added.

"Well I don't know about the other creatures but the Licker will probably start attacking people as soon as later on today. As we've seen before, these things mutate into bigger, stronger and smarter creatures with every person they kill," answered Jess. "We know for a fact that those things go after whatever they want whenever they want. I guarantee you that it's going to be looking for food." The three of them walked back to their room and sat down in the kitchen.

"I wonder when that new guy is going to get here," said Sarah.

"No clue, Boss said he'd let us know when he was on his way or something like that," said Jess.

"What the heck is Boss' real name anyway?" asked Brad.

"Who knows, he never lets anyone know much about him. He's just weird that way I guess, a little too into the secret agent stuff," said Jess giggling a little.

Sarah got up and turned on the radio. She walked into the kitchen and started breakfast. Brad got up and grabbed his book from his nightstand, sat back down and started reading. Jess stood up, walked to the window and looked down at the town. The people that had gathered around the wall were all leaving. The police were at the scene writing their reports and trying to figure out what the three of them all ready knew. Jess looked out farther across the town at the passing cars. Suddenly the song that was playing on the radio was interrupted by a news flash.

"This story just in, four children from the local high school have suddenly disappeared. The families are asking that if anyone knows the whereabouts of Gene and Valerie Lamont, Kellie McDonald and Richard Stewart to please contact the police," said the lady on the radio.

"In another story, police have found the bodies of the missing hikers early this morning about two miles from the Rowley Hunting Lodge. The bodies of Hilda and James Thomas were apparently partially eaten by some kind of large animal, possibly a bear."

She continued, "They were taken in for autopsy immediately. The cause of death was in fact due to animal attack. A substance was found in the blood of both victims that could not be identified. Animal control is being sent out to kill any animals in the area that seem to act aggressive toward humans in any way. The local authorities have closed the area to all civilians until further notice. More will be told on this story as things develop. Now back to your regular program." The radio flipped back to the last few lines of a song and then went to commercials. Sarah turned it down and looked at Jess and Brad.

"Okay now we know that things are starting to get out. This is really getting bad and I don't think we can evacuate anyone out of here. We don't have a cover story and if we told them the truth either no one would believe us or we would cause mass panic. Plus by now some of the people could be carrying the virus. If we were to evacuate, then the infection could get outside this town," said Jess turning from the window.

"Maybe we should call Boss back," suggested Brad.

"Good idea, I'll do it this time," offered Sarah.

She went to the phone, picked it up, dialed the number and waited. She hung up a moment later with a puzzled look on her face.

"Something's not right, the line was disconnected. I couldn't get through," said Sarah coming back into the kitchen.

"I don't like that," said Brad. "How is it possible that the line is disconnected? Do you think-"

"I don't want to say that just yet, it is possible I guess but there could be other reasons," interrupted Jess. "Maybe they're redoing some of the telephone lines or maybe they're doing a lockdown, you know they disconnect almost everything when they do that. Are you sure you dialed the right number?"

"Yes," said Sarah.

"Well, okay. In the meantime, let's walk down to the bus station and find out when the next bus is getting here," said Jess getting up to grab her jacket. "I want to have a better idea of when our new member will be arriving. The Boss said he'd be on the next bus out."

"I agree," said Sarah turning off the stove. Breakfast could wait.

They all walked to the elevator, then out the door and down the street to the bus station. They could somehow feel that the people were nervous and confused about something that was going on. It hung in the air like a thick fog.

Outside the weather was rather nice. The sun was shining with a nice, cool breeze blowing every now and then. There were darker clouds in the distant sky but they didn't seem to be coming towards the town. The only unusual thing was that there was a slight, smoky haze in the air.

As they walked up to the bus station, they saw that it was closed. There was a sign on the door. It read:

The bus station is now closed.  
There will be one last bus in and out of Norrel on Saturday, June 9th at 4:30 p.m. When this bus leaves, there will no longer be bus service to Norrel. This is due to a strike started by the workers of the station in Fairbanks. Bus service in and out of Norrel had been suspended until the strike is over.

We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope to find another way to bring our buses out here.

Sincerely,

Hannah Jones

"Well that's just great. At least we know he'll be in today," said Sarah.

Jess walked up to the door and looked through the glass. The room was full of boxes and all the pictures had been taken down. They were definitely moving out of town. "That story doesn't check out at all. For one thing they didn't say anything on the news about this and for another we know that a ton of people from this town use the buses," she remarked. "I do believe it has started."

"Well, it was going to happen eventually, do you think we should wait for the new guy and complete our mission or just get out of here?" asked Brad.

"Well, since he's coming today we can just wait to complete the mission. Then we can get out of here," Jess answered.

The three of them walked back to their room and turned on the T.V. There was a news report on about a fire that was fifteen miles away from the town. It wasn't coming toward the town but it was threatening to cut off the road out. That explained the hazy air.

"Gee, I wonder if the bus will get past that," Sarah said.

"It probably will, it's already noon and they said the fire is still a ways off from the road," Jess replied.

"Well I'm going to finish making my breakfast, uh, brunch, do you guys want anything?" Sarah asked walking into the kitchen again.

"No thanks, I'll grab something later," replied Jess.

"Well, I'll take some of whatever your making, Hon," said Brad following her into the kitchen.

Jess lay back on her bed and listened to Brad and Sarah as she thought about what was going on. She wasn't sure about this Packard guy. She wasn't sure she would be able to trust him even though they'd never met. She had an odd feeling. Hadn't she heard his name before? Maybe she'd heard it on some other mission? She rolled over and looked at the clock. 12:07. She got up and grabbed her jacket. "I'll be back, I'm going for a walk," she said and walked out.

"Alright, be back-," she heard Sarah say.

"Soon. I plan on it," Jess finished. She walked out the door of the lobby and went to the back of the building. She walked along the wall and stared at the huge gashes. 

As she got closer, she saw what looked like a dull orangey-yellow substance in one of the gashes. She stood up extremely fast and covered her mouth and nose when she realized that what she was looking at was the A-virus. She ran back to the hotel, into her room and immediately took a shower.

"What's up? What's wrong? I've never seen you want to take a shower so badly," Sarah stated putting her plate of food down.

When she was all dressed and out of the bathroom, she told them what she had seen. "I'm not sure if it's still able to go into the air from there, I don't think it's possible but still, it isn't a good idea to be around it."

"Yeah, I agree but shouldn't we do something about it? I mean we wouldn't want some kid sticking their hand in it; they'd be infected immediately. Did we bring the collection kit?" asked Brad.

"I think so but I'm not sure that it's a good idea to go out there and collect it right now. We might bring in too much attention," Jess said.

"You're right, well, it might work if just one of us went down and got it. I think I can do it. What do you think?" Sarah asked.

"Are you sure?" asked Brad.

"Yup," came the answer.

"Okay then, the stuff is in my bag," said Jess pointing to the closet. "You might want to take one of those little masks as well, just in case, and don't touch the stuff with your bare skin."

"Got it," said Sarah. She grabbed the small collection kit, hid it in her jacket and walked out.

"How dangerous do you really think that stuff is just sitting there?" asked Brad.

"Well, by the looks of it, I'd say it really isn't that dangerous unless someone touches it with unprotected skin, as I warned Sarah," Jess answered. "That seems like the only way it could infect someone right now would be if it got inside a cut or break in the skin. Unless some kid was to eat it thinking it was candy but that's highly unlikely."

"Okay then, so I guess we just wait now. Good thing we already ate. At this rate we won't get a decent meal in anytime soon," Brad remarked.

"Oh well, that's not the end of the world," Jess replied. "I do think it's very likely that one of the policemen might have touched it though. That could be a very bad thing."

"Yeah," replied Brad putting his and Sarah's plates in the sink.

About five minutes later Sarah came back. "I got it, it was pretty easy. I suggest that Jess test us to see if any of us are infected. Just to be safe," said Sarah putting the kit back and grabbing the testing supplies.

The test was simple. Take a sample of the persons' blood, mix a bit of a certain fluid into the blood sample and wait a few minutes. If the blood sample stayed red the person was fine. If the blood sample turned to a neon orange color, the person was infected.

"I agree, here hand me the needles," said Jess reaching for the testing supplies. First she took some of Sarah's blood, then Brad's then her own. She then mixed the special fluid into each of the samples and put the vials down. Five minutes later, all three samples were still red. Jess picked up all the supplies, destroyed the blood samples and put the rest of the equipment away.

"Well, now that that's cleared up," said Brad. They were all quite relieved.

"Now what do we want to do, lets see, it's almost 1:00 now. We still have about three and a half hours left before Packard gets here," Sarah said looking at her watch.

"We could go check out the lodge before we go in, find out what we need to prepare for," suggested Jess. "We could also check out the officers, see if any of them are infected."

"You always have adventure on the brain don't you?" Sarah said laughing. "But hey, why not? I'm up for it. How about you Brad?"

"Sure, why not," said Brad.

"Okay then. So we go," Jess said getting up. 


	5. Surprises

6

Thirty minutes later the three of them were walking along the road to the lodge. They carried their guns and a first aid kit.

The weather had turned slightly for the worst. It was starting to rain and the wind had picked up. Oncoming clouds were blocking the sun, so the temperature had dropped a few degrees.

"Ugh, good old Alaskan weather. You gotta love it," Brad remarked looking up to the sky.

"I do," replied Jess with a smile. "After all I've lived in it most my life!"

"I don't mind it most of the time either," said Sarah.

"You guys are strange," Brad laughed, as the rain got heavier.

They continued up the road another ten minutes and finally the lodge came into view. It loomed over the hillside with eerie presence. Its old logs made it look as if it were going to collapse at any minute. There were clear markings of charred wood along one side of the lodge. The dead, colorless trees on the property looked just as old and eerie as the lodge. It looked like the scene to a really cheep horror film.

They jogged up to the fence and looked around. There was no one to be seen. They each took out their handguns and slowly walked up to the front door. They tried it and finding it unlocked, opened it. They waited a moment, and then slowly moved in.

The room was large and dusty. All the lights were off making it a little hard to see. The most noticeable thing about the lodge was how quiet it was. The three of them had learned not to trust any place that was this quiet. Not under the circumstances.

Sarah walked over to one of the windows and opened the curtains. Immediately the whole room was engulfed in the summer light. It revealed a log cabin room with dark green carpeting and lots of old dusty wood furniture. The walls were decorated with the skins, antlers and heads of many different animals. There were two doors, both on the left side and a grand staircase in the middle of the room.

"Should we split up?" Brad asked.

"No way, we're in a new place, it'd be best to stay together," Jess answered.

"And besides, this isn't going to take long, it wouldn't make sense to split up," said Sarah.

The three of them walked across the room and silently decided to go upstairs. The hallway that the stairs ended in looked much the same as the main hall had, dark, dusty and quiet.

They walked along the hallway passing three wood doors, and then entered a small room at the end of the hall. It was a living room with two couches, two chairs, many bookcases and more dust. There was another hall leading out of the small room to the left but they decided against exploring it.

Brad touched one of the bookcases and left a streak of dustless wood. "Housecleaning anyone?" he asked laughing quietly.

They walked around in the lodge for about ten more minutes before anyone said anything else. Then, as they were headed for the stairs, they heard a loud bump down in the main hall. It sounded like someone had just run into a table.

"What was that?" Sarah whispered.

"I don't know. Keep moving and stay low," answered Jess.

They came to the top of the staircase and looked down at the room before them. Nothing. Jess noticed that a chair had indeed been moved several inches from its original spot. One of the corners of the area rug the chair sat on was lifted up and pulled away from the floor to reveal a dustless spot of carpet.

"I don't see anything but there is something down there; look at that chair over there. It was moved," Jess whispered turning back to her team.

"Yes I see it, but what did it?" answered Sarah.

"Hey guys, look out!" Brad shouted as began shooting behind them.

Jess turned around to see a dead-looking man coming towards them in a business suite all covered in blood and rotting flesh. His skin (what was left of it) was a pale bluish white, his teeth and nails long and sharp, his eyes lifeless, a zombie.

Jess brought her gun up and at the same time Sarah landed a bullet right between the zombies' eyes, killing it.

"Wow. That brings up the adrenaline level every time," said Brad after a few seconds.

"Sure does. That means that the virus did get out, alright, let's get out of here but be on alert, we still don't know what's downstairs," Jess said turning back to the staircase.

They walked down the stairs then cautiously moved towards the door. They didn't see anything and made it out safely.

"What time is it now?" asked Jess.

"Um, almost 4:30, it looks like we won't be there to welcome our new member," answered Brad.

"Oh well, I'm pretty sure he knows to stay at the station until we get there so lets head over there next," Jess replied.

7

Bus number 67 pulled up to the Norrel bus station. Its only passenger stepped off and looked around. Tim Packard walked toward the man he had been talking to not long before. A small crowd of people got onto the bus and sat down.

"We need to make this quick, your friends will be arriving anytime now. By the way, what did you do to their HQ?"

"Destroyed it. It's underground in the middle of nowhere so it isn't like anyone would have noticed," said Packard. "What is it that you want me to do?"

"Once they get into the lab, destroy them how ever you want. I don't care. Just make sure that none of them get out alive," came the reply. If you fail to do that, you'd better make sure that they don't make it out of the city, got it?"

"Yes sir. Is that it?"

"Yes, now go and stand by the station before the others get here. Let me know when you've completed your mission."

"Yes sir," Packard said turning and walking back.

Less than five minutes later, the other three came walking up.

"Are you Packard?" asked Jess.

"Yes."

"Okay then let's go, the room isn't far from here. Did Boss fill you in on the mission?" Jess continued.

"Yes," Packard said picking up his bag. "Let's go." 


	6. The Police

8

Jess walked down the sidewalk, trying not to stare at the new guy. He seemed rather boring. He didn't talk much (not that she minded) and he acted as if he really didn't want to be around.

'Well if he really does know everything like he says, I don't blame him. These missions aren't that great,' she thought looking at the hotel ahead. They walked in, waited for Packard to get a room and then walked up to their own.

"He seems a little anti-social to me," remarked Sarah after they had gotten inside.

"Well he doesn't really know us and has no reason to 'socialize' with us. He is here only to help with the mission. That's it," said Jess getting up from her bed and walking to the door. "I'm going to the bar to grab a drink. Anyone want to come?"

"Sure, hang on," said Sarah running into the kitchen for a minute.

"We're not inviting the odd one are we?" asked Brad.

"Oh come on, he's not odd and no, I don't think he'd want to go anyway," answered Jess. The three of them walked to the bar together, sat down at a table and ordered their drinks.

The bar was dark; it had no windows and the lights weren't that bright. Everything inside was wood, wood flooring, wood tables, wood chairs and wood counters. There was a T.V. mounted on the wall behind the bar. They could hear that it was playing a news program. There were two bartenders standing behind the bar and three waitresses. They were the only people in the bar. 

"So, now that we've been inside the lodge, what do you guys think?" asked Jess.

"Well, there's no question that this town is in the beginning stages of an outbreak and I don't think that creatures are going to stay in the lodge for long. The 'tracks' in the back are a sure sign of that," Brad said. "The question is how much time do we have left before things get too out of hand?"

"Yeah, I agree, how much does this change our plans? Oh, and we also need to figure out what's going on with the Boss," said Sarah.

The waitress came and handed them each their drinks. "Thank you. Well, it changes things a little bit anyway. We need to get our mission done as quickly as possible and see if we can get at least some of these people out of here before things get too out of hand," Jess said after the waitress was out of earshot. "I know we can't let the public know what's really going on but maybe we can come up with some other way of getting them out. That will also have to be done quickly if we want to stay in 'policy'. We might have to test every one of the people here to justify evacuation. As for whatever is going on with the Boss, I'm not sure. I'll call him back tomorrow I guess."

"Since when have you cared about policy when it comes to this?" asked Sarah laughing. Jess sent a mock glare across the table at Sarah. 

"Okay, I'll shut up!" she said taking a sip of her drink.

"Anyway, well, I guess this means that we're getting up early tomorrow. 3:00 in the morning. At 4:00 a.m. tomorrow, we start our mission. We should be at the lodge by 4:30. With any luck, we'll be done by 10:00, latest," Jess said taking a drink of her beer.

Sarah and Brad both groaned and stared at their bottles. It was always like this before a mission, silent and sullen. Memories of past missions ran rampant through their minds. Thoughts and questions rang in their ears though no word was spoken. Would they live through this mission? What will happen to the town? The people? 

Jess picked up her beer bottle and held it at arms length above the table. "To Alex. May she watch over us and see us through this mission like she always has."

Sarah and Brad raised their bottles to Jess'. "To Alex," came the quiet reply.

Alex had been their friend and leader of the group before Jess. A zombie had killed her. It had been their sixth mission together. The four of them had been friends since Junior High. Alex's death had been a major shock to all of them.

Jess later became the "leader" of their group when the three of them would not listen to the man that the Boss sent to take Alex's place. It was never officially said or written and Jess hadn't asked for it that was just how it had happened and Sarah and Brad wouldn't take orders from anyone else. This would be their nineteenth mission since then, if they lived.

The three of them finished their beers, paid and walked back up to their room to get ready for the next morning. When Jess finished checking her things, she walked to Packard's room and knocked on the door.

"Hey, we're setting out early tomorrow for the lodge. Mission starts at 4:00 a.m. sharp. Be ready," Jess said. She walked back to the room without waiting for a reply.

"Dinner's on its way," said Sarah putting the phone down as Jess walked in.

The three of them sat on their beds, each lost in their own thoughts until a knock came at the door. The food was brought in and set in the kitchen. Brad paid the waiter as Jess and Sarah set the table.

They sat down to a silent dinner of steak and potatoes. When they finished, Sarah cleaned up and Brad turned on the T.V. They watched a local news program for an hour then turned it off; there were six more reports of people disappearing.

"If we're going to test the policemen that were at the scene we need to do it soon before they all go home," Jess said getting up and grabbing the supplies they would need. "Anyone going to come along?"

"I think I'll sit this one out. I'm going to get to bed early," said Brad.

"I'll come with you, I don't think I'll be getting much sleep," answered Sarah picking up her things.

They checked the map and then walked down the street towards the police station. "What's our cover story?" asked Sarah.

"Well, we're just going to have to tell them that we're medical doctors investigating a possible infection that originated at the scene those policemen investigated. That will have to do and if we can't get in then we can't get in. It won't be the first time we haven't been able to do these tests on people that we really needed to," replied Jess. "We might even be able to get a list of the bystanders that were there and have them tested as well. This is it." The two of them walked into the station and up to the desk.

"Can I help you?" a graying man behind the desk asked.

The two of them told their story and showed the man their fake I.D.s.

"Alright, let me call them up into one of our rooms. You can do your test in there. Kim will show you were to go," said the man pointing to a young, blonde lady in a magenta-colored business suite. They followed her to a small room at the far end of the building. 

"Here it is," she said shortly.

"Thank you," Jess said walking in. The two of them set up their equipment as the men started filing in.

When everyone was present, Jess looked up and explained the process. There were eight of them. It wouldn't take long. Sarah took the first four of them and Jess took the other four. When all the samples were taken (each one labeled with the names of the officers from which they were taken), Jess mixed in the fluid. "It will only be a few more minutes, we thank you for your time," Sarah said.

When the test was complete, Jess pulled Sarah to the side. "Well, five of them are okay but there are three of them that are infected. We don't have any place to put them in quarantine. I guess we should have figured this out before we came," Jess finished trying to think a way out of this problem.

"Yeah, well, we could let the five that aren't infected go and then talk to the other three. We wouldn't tell them what's really going on but instead tell them that they have been infected with an incurable disease. We don't have any of the new anti-virus to help them," Sarah said. "They won't like it but there's nothing we can do."

"Alright," Jess replied.

They let the five officers that were not infected out and then explained to the other three their condition. They seemed understandably shocked and confused.

"Well, is it contagious?" asked a tall skinny man with a mustache.

"It is very contagious but only at a curtain stage, and it is deadly within a half hour," answered Jess. "I'm sorry but you don't have much time left.

"I'm guessing it's contagious after we die from it then?" asked a shorter man with red hair.

"Yes," Jess answered. "I'm afraid there isn't anything we can do."

"Did you three go back to the scene after the first time that the rest of the officers did?" asked Sarah.

"Yes, we did. All three of us. We were asked to secure the area for further testing later on," the third man answered. "That was about fifteen minutes ago. It only took about five minutes and then we were back."

Jess and Sarah got up and walked to the far side of the room. "That must have been when they were infected otherwise they would already be zombies," Jess whispered to Sarah. "Is this room sound proof?" Jess asked one of them men.

"Yes, it's normally used for handling dogs that are in training. We wouldn't want barks to distract anyone who might be doing paperwork in the rooms down the hall," came the reply.

"We are going to collect our things, we'll be back to discuss your options at this point. Please stay here," Jess said as the two of them began picking up their things.

"I hate doing this but I don't see that there is anything else we can do," Jess said. "We're going to have to lock them up in here and make sure that the door is not opened under any circumstance. It's the only way to keep them from infecting others."

"I agree. Lets do it then," answered Sarah.

When they had everything, they shut the door (making sure no one noticed that there were still men inside) and told the security guard to lock it. They walked over to the desk and requested a meeting with the chief. After waiting for about thirty minutes, they walked into his small, tidy office and sat down.

They told the chief that the room they had done the tests in had a large possibility of having a very deadly airborne virus in it. Jess told him that the door needed to be sealed and under no circumstances, was it to be opened. The chief agreed and they watched as a team of men welded the door shut to keep anyone from entering.

Jess and Sarah thanked the chief and began walking back to the hotel. They hadn't gotten a list of names but they had taken the risk down slightly. 


	7. Midnight Mysteries

9

When they got back to the room they found Brad watching a news story. "I thought you were going to get to bed," said Sarah sitting down next to him.

"I couldn't sleep and besides, there was something on about the fire and the bus that left here earlier. The fire has now completely blocked off the road and the bus was destroyed when it was caught in the flames about seventeen miles from here. No one survived. The bodies were all accounted for but were so burned up they couldn't be identified by many physical means. The accident was blamed on the driver because it seems that the bus crashed before the fire reached the road," Brad finished.

"Well, that's sort of odd. Someone could have been infected when they got on the bus. Well at least it was burned. The virus can't spread now. It's 8:30; I'm taking a shower and going to bed. Don't be too loud," said Sarah.

"Okay, no problem," Jess answered.

"I'm right behind you," Brad said turning off the T.V. and following Sarah.

Jess walked over to the window and watched the town as it began to slow with the days' end. There were a few cars on the roads and a couple people walking down the sidewalks. Most of the shops and other small buildings were dark; CLOSED signs hung in their windows. Some of the lights in the houses on the far edge of town began to go off as people went to bed. Only the sun seemed to want to stay up; it's warm rays peeking out, as if it were still midday.

She turned from the window and walked into the kitchen. She sat down at the table with a glass of water. Her thoughts kept going back to the men in the room at the station and of the mission tomorrow. Knowing that there was nothing more she could have done made little difference to her.

She heard Sarah and Brad get into bed about ten minutes later. She finished her water and followed them, though she was sure she wouldn't get much sleep.

10

Back at the police station, past the security guard sleeping at the front desk, past the stairs, down the hall, behind the sealed door, three creatures wandered blindly around, their rotting, bloody flesh falling to the floor in pieces.

Flesh. Human flesh. That's all they wanted. That's all they needed.

They stumbled around chairs and the desk, not very much aware of their surroundings.

Flesh.

11

12:00. 'Ugh, I have got to get some sleep,' thought Jess. She rolled over in her bed and watched Sarah as she slept. 'How are we going to get out of town if the fire cut off the road?' she thought.

Jess got up out of bed and sat down at the kitchen table. The sun was still out, hovering just over the horizon. It would start its accent up into the sky soon. She sighed and stared out at the town. Nothing moved. Everything was closed except the police station, the hospital and a store on the east side of town.

Suddenly something caught in the corner of her eye. There in the street three blocks away was a figure, moving way to slow to be normal. It lumbered slowly forward as if it were drunk. She couldn't make out the condition of its clothing or skin.

Finally she tore her eyes from the figure. It might just be some drug addict walking down the road. Even if it was a zombie there wasn't much she could do about it from there and she couldn't go around shooting a gun in town at the middle of the night.

She heard a muffled pop and looked up just in time to see the figure drop to the ground. Whatever it was, it had been shot. The lights in the buildings around the area where it lay began to turn on.

Jess could make it over there in no time, she was sure of it. She quietly got dressed, grabbed her jacket and went out the door. As soon as she was outside she began to run.

About ten minutes later she arrived at the scene. There were people all around and police were investigating what had happened. She was glad she had stuck one of her false ids in the pocket of her jacket earlier. She showed it to a security guard and was allowed past the tape to investigate.

The body sat in a black bag. It was rotted and falling apart, like it had been dead for a very long time. She put on a pair of gloves that were handed to her and checked the teeth. Very sharp, very dangerous, definitely not human… at least not anymore.

It was a zombie and whoever had shot it had prevented the virus from spreading for now. The body would need to be destroyed though. If it weren't, it would still be possible for the virus to spread to those who came in direct contact with it. That presented a problem, unless she could somehow persuade the police to let her take the body. Then she could destroy it and be back in the hotel room before morning.

She looked around for a car or something that she could use. She noticed that there was a van parked on the side of the road with the keys sitting on the dashboard. Sometimes she loved people who didn't think much.

"Um, sir?" asked Jess. "I am Dr. Allard. I will need to take this body in for testing," Jess said showing the officer her I.D.

He looked uncomfortable for a moment as if he wasn't sure about her and then asked, "Okay, where is your vehicle?"

"Right over here," she said pointing to the van.

"Alright, we'll be done here in about ten or fifteen minutes. We'll load the stiff in your van then," the officer answered.

"Thank you sir," Jess replied walking over to the van. She opened the door and grabbed the keys. She opened up the back and when no one was looking, loaded all the stuff that was inside out onto the sidewalk. About ten minutes later the officers were loading the body into the van.

"Thank you again officer," Jess said climbing into the van and starting it up.

"No problem doctor." he said shutting the van door and walking away.

Jess drove into the outskirts of town and unloaded the dead creature from the van. "Now, how do I burn you up?" she wondered aloud.

She walked back to the van and looked in at the seats. She noticed lots of papers and bags and a container that looked like it was holding gas. She opened the door and sure enough it was full of gasoline.

'These people were strange keeping gas in their car like this but okay,' she thought as she covered the body with the paper and the gasoline. 

When everything was ready, she threw the empty canister back into the van and took her lighter out of her jeans' pocket. She lit up the gasoline and then immediately jumped into the van and drove off. She parked the van where it had been (the street had once again been deserted) and walked back to the hotel.

When she got back into the room Sarah and Brad were still asleep. It was 2:00 in the morning. She got undressed again and got back in bed. 

'Two hours until mission time. I best get some rest,' she thought finally drifting into sleep. 


	8. The Mission Begins

12

At 3:00, the piercing beep of the alarm clock jolted Jess, Sarah and Brad back into reality. Jess had finally gotten some sleep even if it had only been an hour. They got up and each took ten-minute showers. They loaded up their things and got dressed in their mission "uniform" of all black clothes. They checked their supplies and then walked to Packard's room.

"Are you ready in there?" asked Jess.

"Yes. Let's go," he said starting towards the elevator.

"Hey, Packard. I want to make something clear to you," said Sarah. "On this mission Jess is the boss. She says when to go and tells us what to do, okay?"

"Fine," Packard replied.

"Let's go," Jess said taking the lead.

As they walked toward the lodge, no one said a thing. The town was still asleep, only a few people were up and about. The sun had given in to more clouds and the rain poured down in buckets. The wind blew hard and relentlessly on the group of silent travelers.

They got to the lodge at 4:17, ahead of schedule. 'Good,' thought Jess. 'We may not be way ahead of schedule but the quicker we get this done the better.'

They slowly made their way inside. It looked the same as it had the day before. Damp, dusty and old. The curtains were still open, giving the room a slight glow. "Stay together for now. We don't want anyone getting lost in here." Jess whispered.

They walked to the door on the left side of the room and went in. It led to a hall with many small windows. The wind and rain howled through a few of the windows, which had been broken open. The carpet on the floor was old and worn. The walls were covered in dust and blood.

The team made their way down the hall, Jess at the lead, Sarah and Brad following her and Packard at the rear. When the hall turned, Jess put her back against the wall and peeked around the corner. 'Clear' she motioned to the others and they continued on.

At last they came to a door at the end of the hall. They went through and found yet another abandoned room. It was quite large and had no lights making it very dark. The team pulled out their flashlights and continued on.

"The door to the lab should be around here somewhere. Fan out but stay in this room. Give a signal if you find anything," Jess said turning to the others.

Jess walked along the far wall looking at pictures and tables and chairs, trying to find anything unusual. She came up against a closet door and tried it. It was locked. She opened her pack, grabbed her lock pick and opened the door with it. Inside was another door, one with a number pad on it. They would need a code to get inside.

She signaled the others and waited for Sarah. She had the codes. "This is it guys," she said. "Be ready. Enter the code Sarah."

Sarah stepped foreword and entered seven numbers. The door shuddered a moment, then slowly crept open. The smell that hit them as they moved in was revolting. It smelled of rot and death. There was something else too, something Jess couldn't quite place…

They continued to a broken elevator. They walked a little more and found a rusty, old staircase. The four of them passed a few doors and then came to the lab door. Sarah entered another code and the door opened. They proceeded on and came to the control room.

The room was small. It was dark and all metallic grays and blues with blue chairs in front of the computer stations. Computers, monitors and keyboards took up most of the space in the room. A huge computer screen covered the entire right wall.

"This is the room where they have all the information stored. This is the only place we will need to get to accept to get the virus and anti-virus samples," Sarah said.

"Here are the discs that we need to load the information on, can we find a direct route to wherever it is that they hold the samples from here?" asked Jess handing them over to Sarah.

"Yeah. We can do that after we have all the information downloaded," came Sarah's reply.

"How long should that take?" Brad asked.

"About two or three hours. We have a long wait ahead of us," said Sarah. She entered all the passwords and security codes into the computer and started the download.

"I'm going to stand guard outside with Packard," Jess said.

"I'll stay here," said Brad.

Jess nodded and walked out of the room. Packard was standing about twenty feet down the hall to the left. Jess took position a few feet to the right of the door. She checked her watch, 5:47. 'Good, we're still slightly ahead of schedule. We should get done way before I had originally planned,' she thought, looking down the hall with her flashlight.

As the time went by, Jess walked back and fourth through the hall watching Packard, who never moved. She periodically checked in with Sarah and Brad and always the message was the same. "Things are okay in here but it's going to be a while longer."

She came out for the fifth time and sat down. It would be at least another half hour. She stared at her gun and wondered what was going on in the town.

Was everything normal or was something strange going on? Had something gotten out? Had they let something out? And finally she asked herself, why had they not run into something on the way in? Sarah, Brad and her had proven that there was something in the lodge when they came the first time. She forced herself to push the thought aside. She settled in to wait for Sarah to finish with the computer.

13

In the town, something was indeed wrong. Creatures that weren't human though they had human bodies, didn't seem alive though they walked and still others took no human shape and were just monsters walked around, hunting. They came after the residents without remorse.

Little by little the population of the town began to shrink as the number of undead grew. A few who remained stayed in their homes and quickly went to and from home whenever they needed to, though most still walked the streets completely unaware that anything was going on. The destruction of Norrel was well underway. 


	9. Betrayal

14

"It's done," Sarah said taking the last disc out of the computer. "The most direct route to the room that holds the virus is shown here," she said pointing to the large computer screen.

"Okay. It isn't far from here. Can we print this out?" asked Jess.

"Yeah, hang on a minute," Sarah replied hitting a few buttons on one of the keyboards. When the map had printed out and they were ready, they walked out.

"Where's Pickard?" demanded Jess looking around. He was nowhere to be seen. "Oh well, we can't stop now, we'll just have to hope that he'll catch up with us later. Let's go," said Jess moving ahead.

They walked through the metal door and through a few labs. They were all the same. Metal walls, doors and floors, few windows and lots of tables covered in multiple illegal experiments. Very few of the lights were on and everything was trashed. There were papers and upset vials that had contained who knew what. Some of the few windows that were in the lab were cracked (they were all made of reinforced glass) and bloodstained.

This look of total devastation and ruin was becoming sort of a normal sight to Jess, though it was never a comfortable one. She hoped it never would be. They had had agents who had become "comfortable" with these surroundings before. They all wound up going crazy and eventually being killed.

They walked on without a word and finally came to the room where the samples were held. "There aren't supposed to be any security systems online but it would be best to be on alert, just in case," advised Sarah.

"Noted, let's do this and get it over with," said Jess. They walked into a room with the same dismal scene as all the others. At the far end of the room was the freezer where the viruses and the anti-viruses were kept. Sarah and Brad abruptly got to work, while Jess stood guard.

Suddenly there was a loud crash at the far end of the room; where they hadn't been. "I'll check it out, Brad stand guard until I get back."

Jess slowly moved forward pointing her gun straight ahead. She walked around the corner and wasn't very surprised at what she saw. There were three zombies in front closest to her, two in the middle and four in back all in lab coats. She hastily opened fire, putting a bullet in each of their heads as they came at her. When all of them were dead, she made a final check and walked back to the others. "All set? Everything's secure over there," she asked.

"Yeah let's go, I have the samples in my bag," said Sarah.

They walked out the door, on slightly higher guard than when they had first come through. They went through the first two rooms and suddenly ran into Packard.

"Where have you been?" asked Jess a little more than annoyed.

"Give me the samples," Packard said pointing his gun at Jess.

"What?" Jess said backing up. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Give me the samples now," Packard said grabbing Jess and holding her by the neck. "Give me the samples or I'll shoot her."

"We didn't get them. The computer malfunctioned and gave us the wrong route, we have to go back," Jess said.

"You're lying, I watched you collect them, now hand them over," Packard said.

Brad lunged at Packard, trying to catch him off guard. Packard noticed and moved to the side at the last minute. As Brad began to pick himself up, Packard hit him in the back of the head with the butt of his gun, knocking him out cold.

"Brad!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Give me the samples or they both die," Packard said.

"Fine," she said beginning to dig in her bag.

"No, Sarah don't," said Jess.

"Here it is, now let us go," Sarah said holding out her hand with the vials in it.

"Come closer," Packard said. When she made no move to comply, he cocked his gun.

She slowly walked toward him. He took the vials, then knocked her out as well. "Well, now I have to go, good-bye," said Packard. She stepped forward a little when he let go of her neck. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in the back of her head and then everything went black.

15

Packard ran out of the room leaving the other three behind. They didn't matter; he would blow this place up soon enough anyway. He walked down the halls and went into the main control room.

Something made him stop. Something was telling him to go back, to lock them up. He turned then thought about it a moment. Finally he continued on back down the hall.

He came to a room that had a jail cell. "That'll work," he said aloud. He dragged Jess, Brad and Sarah inside and locked the door. He left their things on the table outside their cell and took the key. 


	10. Mission Failure

16

"Ugh," Jess slowly came to, sat up and looked to her partners. They were still out but they were breathing. She got up and looked around.  
They had been locked up in a white jail room. Their packs were just out of reach on a small table across from them. She turned from the table and looked at the two beds in the cell. She managed to get Sarah and Brad up on them and then set about looking for a way to get to the key.

She looked around but saw nothing that she could reach that would help them to get out. She looked up above the bed that Brad was lying on and saw that the ventilation shaft was open. There was another one on the other side of the room and all though it was closed she figured that she could get it open. It was a large enough crawlspace for her to enter, the question was, was it safe?

"Oh well," she said. "Either I go up there and meet something or wait for whatever could be up there to come meet us," she said getting up. "Sorry Brad," she said as she tried to step around him to get into the shaft.

Inside it was cold, musty and dark. She could only see where she was going because of the holes in the shaft opening. She slowly crawled forward, going carefully so she wouldn't get stuck. When she reached the other shaft opening, she pried it open and then dropped through. She shook her head clear, then walked over to the table. She put on her pack, making sure everything was all accounted for, then grabbed her lock pick and unlocked the door. Sarah and Brad were both still out so Jess sat down on the floor and waited. She checked her watch. 10:00. "Man we're way behind schedule now, that jerk, I swear, I'll get him." She paced around for a while then sat back down. It wasn't long before Sarah and Brad began to stir.

"What's going on?" asked Sarah sitting up.

"Yeah, really," said Brad.

"Packard, remember? He knocked us all out and I guess he put us in here and took the samples. If we don't catch up with him, the mission will be a failure," Jess said. "As soon as you guys are ready we'll go after him."

"Let's go then," they replied coming out of the cell and grabbing their things.

"We need to go back to the control room. I think Packard is still here because he hasn't destroyed this place. I don't think he would have left us alive if he wasn't going to do that. We can search for him on the computer," Sarah said walking out of the room.

"You can do that? How?" Brad asked.

"There's a heat sensing device on it. It won't show anything that is already dead but it will show those who are alive," Sarah answered.

"That means it won't show zombies then will it?" asked Brad.

"Nope, now let's go," Jess said pushing ahead.

When they got to the control room, Sarah put her things down, typed for a few minutes and suddenly a map of the lab came on the screen. There were three red dots in the control room, another in a hall not far away and another in one of the labs.

"Hey wait a minute, I thought it wasn't possible for anyone to have survived the outbreak down here. Who is the extra dot?" asked Brad.

"I don't know, maybe it's the sniper that wouldn't let people onto the property when the fire broke out. Is there any way you can find out?" asked Jess.

"I can run a personnel check. That will put the names of any workers or anyone else who is listed in the file here on the screen with their dot," said Sarah hitting a few more buttons. "All the dots that it can't find a name for it will just list as Unknown."

A minute later Packard's picture came up and his name went next to the dot that was now leaving the hall it had previously been in. He entered a lab to the right of him and stayed motionless. He was listed as an undercover employee for Byol Co. and worked directly for Rowley. The other four dots came up as Unknowns.

"Well, this explains why he did what he did," Jess said feeling her anger well up inside her. "It might also explain why we can't seem to reach the Boss."

"We know who we are but who's the other guy? Should we go check him out?" asked Brad.

"No. Let's get out of here. I'm worried about what may be happening in the town," said Jess. "By now something has to h-" 

"THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACCTIVATED. THIS SEQUENCE MAY NOT BE ABORTED. ALL PERSONS EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. REPEAT.

THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACCTIVATED. THIS SEQUENCE MAY NOT BE ABORTED. ALL PERSONS EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

"Oh man, looks like we really need to go," said Sarah picking up her stuff as the alarm continued.

Jess noticed that a timer had come up on the screen. It was counting down; it said 14:46. The three of them looked at the dots one last time and then bolted out the door. They ran up the stairs and made it back into the lodge running into seven zombies each killed with one bullet.

Jess ran to the first window in the hall that had been broken. She could see the street. "Through here guys. Jump out and run towards the road," she said to them.

She watched the other two jump out and quickly followed. When she got to the road she looked towards the town and began to jog back to the hotel. No use wasting too much energy, they had about ten minutes to get out of range. It had taken them about that long to get to the lodge before when they were walking, so they had time.

They stopped when they were finally at the hotel and turned to look at the lodge. Within two minutes, it exploded into a huge fireball that rose high above the surrounding trees. They turned and walked back to their room and plopped onto their beds. They heard the sirens as they put their things away and sat down again. It was 10:27.

"How was the self-destruct sequence initiated?" asked Brad. "I thought that the only room you could do that in was the control room and we were in there the whole time."

"Well, a person can also turn it on from one of the central labs. That other guy was in that same lab. I'm willing to bet he did it," Sarah said.

"That's okay, we were going to do the same thing and we have most of what we need. I guarantee he made it out alive. We'll just have to track him down and find out who he is. Though we need to get to Packard first," said Jess getting up. She walked over to the window and looked out at the town. "You can definitely tell that the virus is out. The town seems as though it's dying."

No one said a thing for a moment as the rain began to fall again. The wind started up and Jess could see lightning in the distance. She walked away from the window, changed into jeans and her orange t-shirt and sat down on her bed. Her thoughts went back to that fifth dot on the computer screen. Who had it been?

"We're going to have to be careful now. We'll have to watch the news tonight and tomorrow to see what has been going on," said Brad.

"Yeah, let's turn the radio on. They only get like, one news station here so whatever news they are going to put on the air will be on it. I think today's paper has come. I think they have them at the desk downstairs. I'll go get the paper, be right back," said Jess getting up.

"Alright," said Sarah.

Jess walked down the hall slowly. She thought about everything that had happened, everything that was happening now and everything that would (or could) happen as a result. It was a lot to think about at one time.

She got downstairs and quickly found the papers. She grabbed one and looked through it for some story that might catch her eye as she walked back. On the front page there was a story about all the "mysterious" disappearances that had been occurring and a story about three bodies that had been found in the woods; half eaten.

She picked up the pace and then suddenly stopped at the elevator. She felt for her wallet and found it in the back pocket of her jeans. She grinned, turned around and walked to the front desk, taking out her wallet.

"Excuse me," she said to the lady sitting there.

"Yes, may I help you?" the lady asked.

"Yes, I had a friend check in yesterday. I was wondering if, since he was with my group, I could cancel his room and pay for last night myself. He left and I don't think he'll be returning," said Jess.

"Well, I wouldn't normally but since he was with you we can do that. One moment please," the lady answered, typing on her computer. "Okay, that will be $45.00 please."

"Here," said Jess handing her two twenties and a five from her wallet.

"Thank you," said the lady, taking the money. "Have a nice day."

"Your welcome, you too," answered Jess walking away. Back at the room, she showed them the paper. As they read through it they found ten more stories that had something to do with their mission and what was going on. When they were done reading, they threw it away and Jess told them about Packard's room.

"Well, that takes care of Packard for now. Is his door open?" asked Sarah. "We should search his room before the maids go to clean it. We might be able to find out what he is or was planning to do."

"Well, it might not be open but I've got a lock pick. These are just simple doors. No number keypad locks or whatever," said Jess. "So it doesn't really matter whether or not it's locked."

"Okay, let's go then," said Brad.

They walked into the hall and unlocked the door to Packard's former room. They went inside after making sure that there was no one around, and locked the door behind them. Jess placed the "Don't Disturb" sign on the doorknob.

Packard's room looked just like theirs did except it had been left in shambles. All three beds were a mess with the sheets strewn all over the floor. The water was on in the bathroom sink. The chairs in the kitchen were lying on the floor.

"Whoa, this place is a mess, I didn't think he needed three beds to sleep," said Brad.

"All the drawers in this whole place are empty," said Sarah.

"So are all the closets and everything else. We might be overlooking something, let's double check," said Jess.

They went through everything again but didn't find anything. "You guys can go back to the room, I'm going to stay a minute longer and make it easier on the maids," said Jess.

"I'll help you," said Sarah turning around.

"Well, I'm going back to the room to take a nap. If I sleep longer than two hours, wake me," Brad said walking out of the room. Sarah nodded at him and shut the door behind him. She began stripping the beds and folding the sheets while Jess picked up the trash.

"We need to figure out how to get out of here. The only road out is blocked by a large fire that doesn't seem like it's going to die out anytime soon. We don't have a car here as it is," said Jess tying up the first of the bags in the trashcan and moving on. "I don't think we'll be able to save many people here either. Not anymore."

Sensing that Jess was thinking about something, she asked, "Is there something that you haven't told us yet?"

"Yeah, last night when I couldn't sleep, I looked out the window. There was a suspicious person stumbling around about two blocks away. It was too far for me to be able to do something quickly so I just kept watching it, hoping that it was nothing. Then from one of the buildings near it, someone shot it through a window or something. Everyone woke up and I got dressed and grabbed my coat and badge. I ran all the way there and looked at the body. It was a zombie," she continued after putting away her second bag of trash. "I convinced one of the officers that I was a doctor and needed to take the body for testing. I had the body put in an unlocked van and drove to the outskirts of town, where I burned it. Then I came back and went to bed," she finished.

"Wow. I wonder if the person who shot the zombie is the same person we saw on the screen during the mission," said Sarah.

"I don't know, I guess it's a good possibility," said Jess as they moved into the kitchen and began cleaning up the dishes and counters. 


	11. The Walk

17

Thirty minutes later they were finished with the room and back in their own. Brad was asleep on his bed so Sarah and Jess decided to go for a walk outside. Jess grabbed her gun and tucked it in her belt. Sarah eyed her strangely.

"What? It's for security," she answered.

"It's just a walk," said Sarah slowly, though in the end she grabbed hers and a small pack of other items as well, hiding them in the pocket of her large sweatshirt.

The air was warm and thick with the haze of the smoke from the fire. It was so thick that the sun was dulled slightly. The wind had died down and the rain clouds had passed. The temperature was comfortable and it was quiet.

They walked in silence for a while then stopped at a small, deserted park. Sarah sat down on a swing and Jess stood nearby.

"I wonder why they even have a park here, I mean, this place is completely deserted. There aren't any homes or businesses out here. Just old rundown buildings and dirty yards," Sarah said as she began swinging. 

Jess said nothing as she watched her friend swing back and forth, listening to the squeak of the metal chains.

They were startled by a woman's sudden screams not far away. Sarah jumped off the swing. They got out their guns and they tore down the road. The screams led them to a dark alley only about thirty yards away. Jess was not surprised at what came into view when they turned into the alley. A zombie walked toward a red-haired woman it had cornered at the alley's dead end. The woman was holding a child and to Jess' dismay, it looked as if the child had been attacked. This was all determined within the first second. Within the next, Jess fired a bullet straight into the back of the zombies' head.

"Don't worry, we're here to help you. It's dead now," Sarah said making her way to the woman. Jess went to the child, a boy.

"My name is Celia," said the woman. "My son was attacked by that… thing while he was playing outside. I couldn't stop it. I managed to get him away from it eventually but he'd already been hurt. Is he going to be okay?"

"Well, first of all, are you okay? Did it get to you?" asked Sarah. 

"I'm fine it didn't touch me but what about-"

"He's dead Celia, I'm sorry," Jess answered in a quiet voice.

"No," Celia whispered.

She fell to the ground, stunned. Jess gave Sarah a silent signal. Sarah moved behind Celia and pulled out a syringe from the bag she had grabbed before they left. She emptied its contents into Celia's neck and almost instantly, she went limp, unconscious. Sarah leaned her up against the wall and looked to Jess.

"I hate this. He can't be more than ten. We know what we have to do though," Jess said.

Without another word, she finished the job. Then Sarah and Jess worked together to carry Celia to a payphone. Jess dialed 911 and told the dispatcher about Celia and where they were. When the ambulance and police got there, they were questioned for nearly an hour.

Eventually they were aloud to leave and walked back to their room in silence. Brad was still asleep when they got back and since it had been nearly three hours, Sarah woke him up.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked.

"About three hours. We went out for a walk but didn't get back until just now," answered Sarah.

"Well, did anything happen?" Brad asked yawning.

Jess told him about what had happened in the alley and about the night before. After a moment, Jess turned on the T.V. for the local news program. There were all kinds of reports about people disappearing and of people seeing strange creatures walking around. There were reports of people who where found murdered. The victims were eaten alive. The most disturbing of the reports was a story about several bodies disappearing from the morgue. Jess turned the T.V. off. They'd heard enough.

Brad decided to go back to sleep, Sarah got out her book and started reading and Jess just sat there, thinking. Jess got up after about thirty minutes. She went to the bathroom, stripped and took a shower.

Her mind still reeled on and on with thoughts about the events that were taking place. She thought about the mission, about the person they'd seen on the screen of the computer, about Packard, and about the Boss. She thought about what had happened earlier that day, what had happened the night before and what had happened at the police station.

When she was done in the bathroom, she put on her pajamas and walked to her bed.

"The lady at the front desk said that someone rented out a cabin for us not far from here. She said it's been paid for up to two months," said Sarah, putting down the phone. "What do you think?"

"What the heck, I'm interested. I'd rather stay in a private cabin if you ask me, what do you wanna do?" Jess asked her.

"I'm in, Brad doesn't mind either," replied Sarah.

"Where is he?" Jess asked realizing he wasn't in bed.

"He went to the bathroom down the hall. He should be back in a minute."

Jess and Sarah packed their things. Sarah packed Brad's bag after she was done with her own. Not long after Brad came back in the room and went back to bed. Sarah went down to the desk and told the lady they were leaving. She paid enough money to stay one more night, then her and Jess went to bed. 


	12. Captured

18 

The next morning, the three of them got dressed and made their way to the cabin after checking out and asking for directions. When they got there, they looked around. It was a bit small but otherwise looked like a normal log cabin.

They went inside and put their things down. They were in a living room that had a blue carpet. There was a dark green couch, two reclining chairs in the same color and a large T.V. There was a doorway to the left that led to a large kitchen and dining room with white and blue tiles in the floor. The counter tops were the same shade of blue. The round dinner table had four chairs set at it. There was a window by the table looking out at the side yard and a nearby building. There were five more doors leading out from the living room.

One led to a white bathroom, one was a back door that led to a small, fenced-in backyard. The last three were small bedrooms each with the blue carpeting, a bed with white sheets, bedside table and lamp, trashcan, a closet and two medium dressers.

They claimed their rooms and put away their things. Jess turned the lights on in the kitchen and the living room and helped Sarah with lunch. Brad, Sarah and Jess ate in silence at the dinner table.

"I like it here," Sarah decided after they were done cleaning up. "You can hear the cars on the road and it smells a little strange but I like it."

Brad spent the rest of the afternoon flipping through channels on the T.V. while Jess listened to her music and Sarah red her book.

Jess turned her CD player off and walked into her room. Suddenly she tripped and fell. She looked to see what she had tripped on and found that part of the carpet had been lifted up. It looked like there was a cellar door underneath.

"Are you alright?" Sarah called from the living room.

"Yeah, come here for a sec, I found something," Jess replied, peeling back the rest of the carpet and opening what was in fact, a cellar door.

"Whoa," Sarah said when she walked in. "Cool. Be careful though."

They both walked down the staircase. Jess found a switch and flipped it. The lights revealed a small room with a cold dirt floor and walls lined with empty shelves. They walked around for a moment, exploring the hidden room.

"There's nothing in here. I'd be a nice place to hide though," commented Jess as they made their way back up the stairs.

Suddenly, something caught Jess' eye.

Jess replaced the piece of carpet and they walked back into the living room. Brad was gone.

"Brad?" Sarah asked, checking his room.

"Maybe he went outside to get some fresh air," suggested Jess.

"Maybe," Sarah said. She turned on the radio and they heard that the police station had been taken over by a group of about thirty or so men. Most of the police were being held hostage, it was unknown if anyone was hurt or dead.

"Wanna check it out?" asked Jess.

"Sure, we can catch Brad later, I guess," Sarah replied.

They grabbed their guns, a first aid kit, and a pack of other various items and started towards the police station. Jess noticed that the front door was slightly ajar but didn't think anything of it.

It didn't take long for them to get to arrive. There was a crowd in front of the station. They could see that it consisted of police that had managed to get out, medical personnel, reporters and a few bystanders.

Sarah and Jess went around back and got in through an open window into a small, deserted room. They moved into the hall and swept through it. The whole station seemed deserted.

They came to the end of the hall, heard voices coming towards them and ducked into the closest room. They heard the voices pass and found themselves in a room with a cell. Brad was lying on the floor of the cell either asleep or unconscious.

"Brad!" Sarah exclaimed running to the cell.

"Quiet Sarah," Jess said slightly alarmed. She listened but didn't hear anything. She moved to Sarah's side. "Is he alive?"

"Yes," replied Sarah.

Jess looked around the room. There were four cots and a toilet in the cell. There was a table with two chairs in front of the cell doors and a trashcan next to it. Behind the table was a small locker for the items of the people held inside the cell. The floor and the walls inside the cell were grey stone. The walls outside the cell were regular plaster, like the rest of the building.

There was a clock on the wall above the door. It was 5:14. Jess turned around and looked back at Brad.

"Drop your weapons and get on your feet," said a stern voice from behind them.

Sarah and Jess jumped up and spun around to see three men standing in the doorway pointing guns in their faces. Reluctantly, they dropped their guns and were thrown into the cell with Brad. The men locked the door and left. It was then that Jess caught sight of a security camera in the corner of the room.

'How could I have been so stupid? This is a police station, they're supposed to have security cameras in here and why didn't I hear them coming?' She thought as she sat, fuming at herself.

19

The days went by slowly in the cell. Everyday their captors brought them bland meals of bread, crackers, pepperoni sticks and water and then left. They sat in their cell, with nothing to do but watch the occasional person go by.

Sarah and Jess found out that Brad had in fact gone for a walk and had been taken into the police station by a strange man. Resistance had caused his captor to knock him out and thrown into the cell. .

The police never got inside the station and after being in the cell for four days they were pretty much bored out of their minds. They knew things were getting really bad outside in the town by what they heard from the men in the building but there wasn't much they could do about it.


	13. Earthquakes and Interrogations

20

One morning they awoke to the building shaking violently. The three of them jumped down and got underneath their cots. The earthquake continued on and on, knocking books and plants off of shelves and pictures off of walls. Jess heard the building crack somewhere but didn't move to look. A few seconds later, it stopped.

They got out from under their cots and stood. Jess could see that everything had fallen from the desk in the room across the hall and all the pictures had shattered on the floor. The trashcan in their room was knocked over and its contents were still rolling everywhere. She could hear men shouting all over the place. They sat down and waited to see if anything else would happen.

A few hours later, they heard someone say that the road out had been completely blocked by a landslide (Norrel was surrounded by mountains and the road went through them). What was left of the road on their side was cracked and torn apart. A few buildings in town had suffered minor damage but nothing had collapsed. There were a few aftershocks throughout the day but the excitement was over.

The next afternoon, Packard walked in and sat down at the small table in front of the cell. "Hello, long time no see. How are you three idiots today?" he asked smiling at them.

Jess stared hard at him until he looked away from her. Brad and Sarah followed her example.

"I bet you've been wondering why you weren't able to get a hold of your 'Boss'," said Packard finally.

"What did you do?" said Jess feeling her anger rise.

"I blew up your precious 'HQ' and everyone in it. They never even saw it coming," said Packard smiling. "The explosion was quite large. Too bad no one was there to watch it with me."

"Shut up, you-," Jess yelled.

"Ooh, temper, temper. I'd watch that if I were you," said Packard.

"Well, I'm not you am I? That'd be lowering myself down there quite a bit," Jess retorted.

Packard's smile faded and he gritted his teeth. Jess smirked at him and turned away. She heard Packard get up and leave. They sat around for another half hour or so until he came back. This time he unlocked the cell and grabbed Sarah.

"What do you think you're doing? If you're taking anyone, you're taking me," Jess said stepping foreword.

Packard slapped her across the face with the hand that had the key in it. She fell to the floor, not expecting the blow, and felt her face. There was blood on her cheek where he had hit her.

"I'll be okay guys, don't worry," said Sarah smiling at them.

"You'd better not harm her in any way, Packard," Jess and Brad said at the same time.

Packard just locked the cell door and took Sarah out of the room without a word. Another thirty minutes later, Packard brought Sarah back, unhurt and took Jess.

"Where are we going?" she asked, a little irritated.

Packard said nothing and kept walking. They went into a small room with a desk and two chairs. He handcuffed her to the chair nearest the door and sat down in the one across from her.

"So… why are we here?" asked Jess, getting bored with Packard.

"I want to know how you got the information about Rowley."

"No way."

"I think you'll change your mind," said Packard reaching into his pocket and pulling out a large knife.

"Pretty. Do you use that to shave in the morning?" said Jess sarcastically.

"Do you think it wise to say such things to me?" asked Packard getting up.

"Do you think I care whether or not it's 'wise'?" Jess said as Packard came behind her.

"The information, how did you get it?" asked Packard again placing the cold blade against her neck.

"Some of our agents, that you likely killed, came here as tourists a few months ago, got the information for us and reported back. That's all I know about it because they came back out here again about two months ago to destroy the lab and disappeared. Part of our mission was to find out what had happened to them."

"Well, your right about me killing them, though I did not know that they had gotten in before I did so. That will be all then."

He unlocked the handcuffs, led her back to the others, threw her in the cell, locked the door and left.

"He was asking me about how we got the information about Rowley. What'd he ask you?" she asked Sarah.

"The same thing. I told him that I didn't know because I wasn't entrusted with that information, and then he asked about you. I told him a bunch of things that didn't matter and things that weren't true. He got annoyed and that's when he brought me back," finished Sarah.

"Oh, wow, he asked about me," said Jess in mock flattery. The three of them laughed in spite of themselves and looked for something to do. One of the men brought their dismal little meals in about ten minutes later. They ate silently.

A few days later, the three of them were sitting around with nothing to do, when they suddenly heard someone yell "Intruder! Intruder! Don't let him get out alive!" They heard shooting from the other side of the building and saw a few men running in that direction.

"Alive. That must mean he's not a zombie. Well, if he's a good guy I hope comes this way and lets us out," said Jess walking to the bars.

"What if it's that mystery guy we saw on the mission? We really do have hopes of getting out of here if it's him," said Sarah.

"What makes you think he'll be on our side? He might not have loyalties to anyone," said Brad.

"That's a possibility but I think I'll stick to my idea," said Sarah.

The shooting and yelling lasted for almost thirty minutes, and then they heard someone say that they "had lost sight of the intruder". By the end of the day, there had been a guard assigned to their cell. He was a tall man dressed entirely in black. He had the keys to the cell, a radio and a gun. He put the keys on the table, sat down and fell asleep.

"Some guard," Sarah snorted as he began to snore.

"That snoring is going to get annoying," said Brad.

Jess eyed the keys and kept quiet. There had to be a way to get to them. She looked around but didn't see anything to help her. There were no ventilation shafts this time. Frustrated, she sat down on her cot and began thinking about nothing in particular.

Suddenly they heard the loud crash of a breaking window and the guard's radio fuzzed to life. "Get down here, something got through, we need you!" yelled a voice over to him.

The guard jumped up, grabbed his gun and ran out the door, upsetting the table and chairs in the process. The keys flew towards the cell and landed only a few feet from Jess' reach. The guard didn't look back or turn around to get the keys. They heard a few cries of pain from some of the men and many gunshots before it went quiet again. A few moments after word, there was the sound of hammers and construction.

Jess rolled a blanket up and squeezed it through the bars. Then she tried to throw the end of it over the keys and drag them to her. After numerous tries she finally succeeded. She grabbed the keys and unlocked the door.

She sprinted across the room and unlocked the locker, passing around the items inside. They walked out and went to the room that Jess and Sarah had come in through. The window was still open. They checked to make sure the coast was clear and ran back towards the cabin. 


	14. Jess' Savior

21

The town was in shambles. Cars and trucks and other vehicles were wrecked all over the streets. There was garbage everywhere. The damage from the earthquake had been made worse by the creatures that now roamed around. Fires had broken out and with nothing to stop them, had burned quite a few structures down. The most disturbing things they saw were the mangled bodies of countless victims. The walls of most of the buildings were stained red with blood. They only ran into four zombies.

Back in the cabin, they locked the front and back doors and blocked the kitchen door with the couch. Sarah turned on the radio; there was only static. She switched it off and sighed.

"What do we do now? The road is still blocked off and that's the only way out of here," said Brad.

Memories of past missions flooded Jess' mind. "I don't know. We'll just have to survive until we find a way out. This cabin won't protect us well enough though. We need to find a better building to hide in."

She grabbed all her things from her room and threw them in her bag. Sarah and Brad did the same with their own. They put their bags on the couch then stood, deciding what to do next. They settled in, sitting on the floor, to wait for an idea to come to them. 

Jess changed out of the clothes she'd been wearing for the last few days and into a pair of dark, skin-tight jeans and her favorite red halter-top. Sarah changed into a long blue silky skirt and creamy colored button up shirt. Brad kept on his same loose jeans and black t-shirt.

Suddenly they heard the glass of the kitchen window break and the distinctive thud of creatures coming in. The three of them shot to their feet, guns pointed at the blocked door. They heard the creatures walk around, moaning to themselves, and begin pounding and scraping the wood of the kitchen door. The couch stayed where it was. 

"They know we're here," said Jess stepping back slightly.

All three of them whipped around upon hearing the same pounding and scratching at the back door. Quickly, Jess put down her gun and began to push one of the chairs towards the back door. She had noticed earlier that the lock to the back door was very weak; it would easily give in. Brad and Sarah joined her and soon they had the door successfully blocked off.

"Phew, alright everyone stay calm," said Jess in an odd voice.

"Yeah, okay," answered Brad sarcastically.

"Whatever you say," said Sarah in an equally sarcastic tone.

Jess eyed them, walked into her room and looked in one of the drawers of the second dresser. Not bothering to close the drawer, Jess pulled out a map of Norrel that had been put in it and walked back out to the living room. She realized for the first time that the bedrooms had windows, so she shut the doors to them.

"This shows that there is a clinic not far from here. I think it's a one-story building so it will be easy to secure. It would be best to start there so let's go. Anyone have any objections?" asked Jess.

"No," both Sarah and Brad replied.

They grabbed their things and bolted out the door. There were no zombies around the front of the house or down the road so the beginning of their trek was easy.

As soon as they got on to the main road however, things changed. They ran into creature after creature, grateful to have lots of extra ammo. After thirty minutes of running around, they came to a brick warehouse less than a block from the clinic. According to the map it was just around this building a ways. Suddenly, shots rang out as they turned the corner. They all ran back around the building and waited. 

Packard's voice called out a moment later. "What's wrong? Don't feel like playing? Too bad, you can't hide for long. I'll find you eventually!" he laughed shooting one more time.

"Come on guys, this way," Jess whispered as she walked to the door of the building. "It's open, let's go."

They slowly made their way inside the deserted building. Brad shut the door and locked it behind him. The room they were in was large, dark and full of boxes, crates and bags. Jess found a backpack, picked it up and decided to put her things in it. It would be easier to carry around than her duffle bag would be. There were plenty more backpacks where she had found that one too.

"Hey guys, as long as we're in here, we might as well look for things that will help us in any way," she told them, beginning to look around.

They were startled when they heard something crack loudly. They didn't see anything and after a moment, went back to searching. They had been in the building for ten minutes when they heard a window break in the back. They hid behind a large box and waited.

"Where did they go?" they heard Packard growl to himself. "They couldn't have gotten very far."

They watched as Packard jumped through the broken window and walk around. Slowly they moved towards the door, making sure he didn't see them. Jess caught sight of something moving between them and Packard but didn't have time to think about it.

They sprung at the door (there was nothing left to cover them) and opened it but were met by about seven zombies crowding around their only escape.

"Ha! I found you! Now there's no way out." Packard said, aiming his gun at them.

They quickly closed the door against the zombies, locked it again and faced Packard. They pulled out their own guns and shot at him. He dodged behind some boxes and shot back. They also hid behind boxes to evade the bullets.

Jess sat where she was for a moment, trying to figure a way out of this. A bullet whizzed off the edge of the box she was sitting behind. She shrunk to the other side and ran to another box.

Jess heard another loud crack just like the one before and turned to see a very tall shelf collapsing, right on top of Brad and Sarah.

"No! Move guys! MOVE!" Jess screamed at them, but they didn't hear her.

They were buried underneath pile after pile of bags, boxes and whatever else had been on the collapsed shelf. She realized a little too late that she had jumped up, completely exposing herself to Packard's bullets. She felt a sharp pain in her left arm and was suddenly lifted off her feet. She hit the ground with a thud, knocking the wind out of her. 

She shook her head to clear it and slowly stood up. She watched Packard run out into a hall that she hadn't previously seen. She cursed then noticed that Brad and Sarah where climbing out of the rubble. Finally, she turned around to see who had knocked her over, quite possibly saving her life.

He was lying on his side on the ground, apparently out cold. He had been shot in his left shoulder in two places and once in his left arm. She checked his pulse; he was alive and breathing; his wounds didn't seem life-threatening.

"Who's he?" she heard Sarah ask from behind her.

"I don't know but he saved my life," replied Jess picking up her gun again. "Are you guys alright?"

"Yeah, just a few cuts and bruises. Nothing bad. Where did Packard go?" asked Brad.

"Down that hall over there. Pursue him, I'll catch up," replied Jess.

"Alright," said Brad turning towards the hall.

"Hey, can you leave the first aid kit? I'm going to wait here," said Jess.

"Fine. Here," said Sarah taking it out of her pack, tossing it to Jess and following Brad down the hall.

Jess fixed up the man, laid him on his back and then wrapped her arm.

She stared at him for a while. His brown hair was cut to his ears. He was wearing a light grey shirt, (that was now covered with a bloody bandage) a brown suede jacket, and black pants. She noticed he had a large knife and a couple guns on him. Was he another agent? He looked young, no more than Brad's age.

She looked away from him and put the kit in her pack. She stuck her gun in her jeans and leaned against one of the boxes. She heard the zombies pounding at the door, thankful that it was thick metal and holding fast. It wasn't long before the man stirred, and woke.

"What the?" he said as he came to. He caught sight of Jess and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for saving me," she answered. She felt herself blush, and quickly asked, "How're you doing over there?"

"It was nothing. I'll be okay. It's not the first time I've been hit. My name's Leon by the way," he said trying to get up.

She smiled at him. "Mine's Jess. Stay down for a while; you don't want to put too much stress on yourself just yet. I'm here with my partners. I think I can trust you, we're on a mission," she said, moving to help him. "What are you doing here? If you don't mind me asking."

"The same reasons as you are. I'm here alone though. I'm guessing that you're after Rowley and Packard then?" asked Leon getting to his feet anyway.

"Yeah, though we didn't know about Packard until he had already blown up our HQ and stolen the things we'd come to get," said Jess frowning. "He posed as one of our newcomers."

"It happens to everyone. Let's say we catch up with your friends," he suggested.

"Sure lets go, you can join us in getting out of this place if you like," said Jess picking up her things. She supposed he was right, they were human after all and humans had a knack for being imperfect. She blushed again and hid her face as they walked down the hall together.

They each pulled out their guns as they turned the corner down the dark, musty hall. They heard gunshots and yelling and began to run. Ending up in a small, equally dark and musty room, Sarah and Brad turned to look at them. Packard lay dead on the floor in a large pool of blood next to the corpse of a zombie.

"Packard ran in here not looking where he was going and was attacked. We checked him for the samples, he doesn't have them." reported Brad. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Leon. Leon, this is Sarah and Brad, my team," said Jess introducing them. After a brief pause, they made their way to the clinic, as had originally been planned. They made it there without too much trouble.

Once inside, they quickly secured the building and began looking around. It was a mess, just like everything else in the town. Everything was dirty and there were many places that were stained with blood. Papers and medical instruments were thrown all over the floor. Curtains and bed sheets were everywhere. A light that had been hit by something long gone flickered on and off, casting unusual shadows all around the main hall. It was very still as they walked along the halls and into the rooms. Jess began closing the doors to the rooms that she found empty.

She walked into the last room on the left side of the clinic, sweeping the beam of her flashlight slowly along the floor. She walked over to a large wall cabinet and opened it, looking for any more supplies they could possibly use. A middle-aged man fell to the floor, cowering before her.

"Please don't shoot, I'm not one of those things," he begged. "Please don't kill me!"

Jess lowered her gun from his face and helped him up. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help. I came with a bunch of friends and we're getting out of here as soon as possible. You can come with us if you'd like," she told the man. He looked for a moment as if he would refuse her offer but then told her that he would go with them. 

"What's your name?" she asked him.

"Benny Wilcote." The two of them rejoined the group and she made the proper introductions. 


	15. History

22

When they were done with their search, they had found some additional first aid supplies, a couple flashlights and a few extra batteries. 

They packed the items, found seats in a room down the hall and sat down. Brad got up and asked everyone what they wanted from the vending machine outside. Requests were taken and they heard the loud crack of breaking glass and he came back a moment later and passed everything around. They finished their food silently, and then sat thinking about different things.

Sarah and Brad walked over to the other side of the room and sat down by the bed, quietly talking to each other.

"So how did you guys come to be in this line of work?" asked Leon.

"It's a long story," said Jess.

"It's a long wait," said Leon.

"Well, Brad, Sarah and I have all known each other for a long time." Jess sighed, looked at Sarah, then smiled and looked at Leon. "I had a small family growing up. I lived with my brother and my parents. My dad's job required that we move a lot when I was younger and until I was about six, it was rare for us to live in the same state for more than a year or two. We finally ended up in Alaska, here and got to stay. I didn't have too many friends until I met Sarah in fourth grade. After that, my life was pretty normal until ninth grade. I was spending the night at Sarah's house and the next morning, my brother and parents went shopping it town. On their way back, when they were coming to pick me up, they were hit by some guy driving a semi truck. He ran a red light thinking he could make it across. My family was killed instantly in our little car and the guy responsible later died of his injuries because he hadn't been wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash. Since I had no extended family left, they tried sticking me in an orphanage.

"Sarah finally convinced her parents to 'adopt' me because the orphanage was going to send me to some kind of facility because I kept running away for weeks at a time," Jess said looking at Sarah again. "Not long after that, we met our friend Alex whose parents were involved in stopping Byol Co. She was also involved in the little ways that she could be at the age of sixteen. Sarah and I joined her and started our team. A year after that, Brad moved up here and he and Sarah got together. He became our fourth member. After we graduated, we became official agents thanks to Alex's parents. 

"Alex was the only one with experience so she became our leader. The rest of us just followed her. We did well and got through many clean-up missions, being the only team assigned to them. We just had to go into affected cities and towns, rescue any survivors and find out why the outbreak had occurred. We had to do all this before the location was bombed. On one of our missions Alex was killed. After that I was appointed leader and we were given many more mission opportunities. That's about all to my life," Jess finished.

"I'm sorry to hear about your family and your friend," said Leon. Jess shrugged and said nothing more. 

"Hey Jess, come on," Sarah said from the door about a half hour later.

Jess got up without a word and followed Sarah to the bathroom down the hall. They did their business, and then stood at the cracked sinks cleaning up as best they could.

"You like him don't you? I can see it in your eyes," said Sarah smiling at Jess through the mirror.

"What? Like who? Who are you talking about? …Leon?" she asked, knowing what the answer would be before it came. Sarah nodded to her, still smiling.

"What? No way! I do not like him. I gave up on guys a long time ago, you of all people should know that," said Jess defending herself.

"Then why do you gawk at him so much when he's not looking? Why do you blush when he talks to you? I've never seen you blush so much. You can't hide it, he's going to find out eventually," said Sarah smiling.

"Okay, okay, stop it. So I do like him. Who cares? With my luck he's probably married or something," Jess countered.

"No ring," Sarah shot back.

"Fine, whatever, just promise not to say anything. Not even to Brad, he'd be all over me about it," said Jess.

"Scout's honor," said Sarah laughing. "Leon's still going to find out though."

Jess shook her head as they walked out of the bathroom and quietly walked back into their room. Sarah giggled when they walked past Leon. Jess nudged her hard in the side but still couldn't keep from blushing. The men looked a little confused for a moment, and then shrugged it off. 


	16. Bear Trouble

23

They spent the night in the clinic room safely. Jess woke up to the sound of something hissing or, rather, breathing in the room next to theirs.

She listened a minute, grabbed her gun and got up. Sarah looked at Jess who motioned for her to stay in the room. "I'll be right back," she whispered to her.

She hugged the doorframe of the next room with her back and then quickly moved inside, pointing her gun in front of her. She was careful to avoid the scattered items on the floor, so as not to give away her position. She slowly walked past the large, overturned bed that was blocking her view of the majority of the room. 

She came around the corner and caught her breath as a very large, ugly creature came into her sights. It was pure muscle, with no skin. It was rotting and covered in blood. It looked almost like an overgrown sloth, being about five feet long. At the end of all four legs, it had razor sharp claws (that would allow it to climb concrete walls with ease) nearly three feet in length. It had a tongue reaching up to twelve feet away that was as sharp as its claws. As it turned toward her, she could make out its grey, dead eyes; a Licker.

Jess darted out of the room at full speed. She slammed the door behind her and looked for something to bar it. She heard the creature breathing in the room, coming closer and closer.

"We have to go," Jess yelled to the others, grabbing her pack. "There's a Licker in here."

In less than five seconds, the five of them were out of the clinic, huddled behind a tin shed.

"Okay, where do we go now?" asked Brad.

"We need to find a safe place to hide for now," Jess said. "We'll make a plan of action later."

"I've got a hideout around here. It's a bit of a long walk. It's underground though, so we should be safe," said Leon.

"Lead the way," said Jess.

They followed Leon down the street and onto a path through the woods. The dark misty atmosphere put all of them on edge as they quickly moved on. They stopped when they heard the snap of a significantly sized tree. They could hear the growling and clicking teeth of a very large creature from behind. At first Jess thought that the Licker had followed them but when she turned around, she was thoroughly surprised. They all froze in place as their eyes fell upon something that looked as though it had once been a grizzly bear.

What little patches of fur left on its mangled body, were covered in blood. Its throat had been torn out, leaving almost nothing but muscle, vocal cords and the spinal column. It raked its huge claws along the tree it had knocked down and continued growling.

Jess slowly backed up, watching as the bear-creature stood on its hind legs, reaching its full ten foot height. The four of them, as Benny was not in possession of a gun, had time to fire off a round each before it charged. They took off running down the path, and then broke off of it, back towards the city. Weaving in and out of the brush and branches of fallen trees, they quickly lost each other in the mayhem. 

Jess was aware of Sarah following close behind and Benny behind her. They couldn't hear anything of the men and the bear-creature. Still they dared not slow down and stopped only when they reached the edge of the woods. They caught their breath and began searching for the other two.

In the air, there was a feeling of tense fear. They knew they were being watched. From where, was the question.

"We have to go back. We don't know where they are and well, we didn't hear anything to indicate that they didn't make it," said Jess.

"Screw them, I am not going back in there, are you crazy?" Benny whisper-shouted. 

"Leon is the only one who can get us to where we were going to the beginning. If we don't find him, getting out of here will be a lot harder," Jess said.

"Besides, I go nowhere without Brad," Sarah shot at him.

Jess and Sarah made their way back into the woods, and cursing, Benny followed. They made their way through the trees and eventually found the path once more. They followed it and eventually came up on the men.

"There you are, are you guys okay?" asked Jess.

"Yeah, we're good, you guys?" Leon answered.

"Good. Let's get out of h-" Jess was interrupted by the agitated grunting and huffing of the bear-creature behind them. They took off running, down the path, with it close behind them. Benny tripped on a fallen log and before any of them had time to turn and help him up, the bear-creature was on him. He screamed once, and was dead. The remaining group continued running along the path for about twenty minutes and came off the path on the other side of town.

Zombies were everywhere. The team's supply of ammo was running out. By the time they arrived, Brad was out and Sarah had one clip left. Only Jess and Leon had a "safe" amount remaining.

"Here Brad, take some of mine. You too Sarah," said Jess, handing them some of her extra ammo.

The room they were in was small and old. It had a large table with two chairs in the middle of it and a few shelves along the walls holding a radio and box after box of things; Jess didn't know what. There was one small light that hung above the table. The floor was cold dirt.

Leon crossed the room and picked up the radio. He put it down after a moment, "broken. If my superiors don't hear from me soon, they'll assume that my mission failed and will send out an order to blow up the city," he said.

"Just like Raccoon and every other city that has had an outbreak," said Jess sitting at the table. Leon gave her a strange look for a moment, then focused on what was being said. "They have pretty effectively blocked off the main entrance to the city. Getting out any other way will be pretty difficult."

"Hey, maybe for now at least, we could walk down to the police station to get more ammo. I'm sure they'll have some," said Brad.

"Sure, I'm up for it. How about it?" said Sarah.

"Sure," came the monotonous replies. 


	17. Lost and Found

24

They walked down the streets to the station in less than ten minutes. The town was deserted for the time being. They entered the station slowly, watching out for an ambush of some kind. The four of them walked down the halls. All the terrorists that had been in previous possession of the building were dead. They could tell that something very large had come through and killed them.

They walked into the armory and took all the ammunition they could find. The armory was a small stone room stocked from floor to ceiling with shelves full of ammo and guns. They decided to take some bigger guns just in case they ran into anything else that was bigger than the zombies or even the lickers, picking up extra bags to carry it all. They walked out of the room and continued on.

Suddenly they heard a loud crash and the roar of some enormous and deadly creature that none of them wished to meet. They ran out the door but before they could get outside the police gates, they were cut off by a creature Jess had only seen once before on a previous mission, a B.O.W.

It was large, fourteen feet tall, standing on two legs. Its four massive, bloody arms ended in five four-foot long claws, sharp enough to shred even the thickest of metals. Its rotting flesh shook with every bellow it uttered.

The four of them stopped in their tracks and before any of them could move a muscle, the creature jumped at them and thrust its huge claws through Brad's chest. He screamed in pain, and then fell silent. The creature tossed him to the side, and quickly jumped away when it realized that one of his "targets" was getting out a large weapon.

"Brad! NO!" screamed Sarah, running to him. Jess followed and hugged Sarah to her, trying to comfort her. Brad was dead. Jess closed her eyes against her own tears.

"Sarah? Sarah, we have to leave now. We don't want it coming back," Jess said looking into Sarah's eyes.

"I'm not leaving," said Sarah stubbornly.

"Sarah, he wouldn't have wanted you to die as well. He'd want you to come with us, to save yourself. Now come on. Please," said Jess, bringing Sarah to her feet.

"Fine," Sarah whispered.

They took some supplies off of Brad that they would need, and then stopped a moment to look upon their departed friend. They moved on when they heard the roaring of the creature that had killed him getting closer and closer.

25

Back in Leon's hideout, they checked everything they had gotten at the police station. Leon checked his watch.

"We don't have much time left. My agency will be sending bombs this way soon. I'm guessing we have little more than ten hours before things start to light up," he said.

"We could try to get around whatever is blocking the road. It would be a really long walk back to Fairbanks but we'd get there eventually," said Jess. Sarah just nodded her head in agreement and sat down at the table.

They spent the night in the hideout and got up early, packing their things to leave. They walked to the nearest grocery store and took some breakfast, eating silently in the isle. They finished quickly and decided to make a new plan of escape.

"We can just hike out of here like we originally planned. Except that would take forever and Rowley has our samples. We really should try to get them back before we leave," said Jess. "That is if he's still in town."

"I think it would be best to just leave. I highly doubt that he's still around anyway I don't think this will be our last chance to get him but it might be our last chance to get out of here," said Leon.

"Alright, well, the sooner we leave, the better," said Jess getting up. They walked into the streets headed west to go around a large part of the road that was blocked off by a car collision. 

Suddenly, a gas station exploded behind them, sending fireballs and plumes of smoke into the air. The three of them ran behind a building as a burning tire crashed to the ground where they had been standing before. They ran down the road to escape the fire and falling debris, but were cut off when they ran into a large mob of zombies.

Jess looked behind them. The fire was spreading amazingly fast through the closely nit buildings like it would through a dry grass field. They wouldn't have enough time or ammo to shoot all the zombies before one or the other overtook them. She looked to the side as Leon and Sarah began shooting at the oncoming horde. She noticed a door to one of the buildings that hung slightly open. It was a little uncertain but it was their only way out.

"Hey guys, we need to go through here and hope there's another door on the other side that we can get to and go through before the fire gets to this building," she said running for the door.

The other two followed her and shut the door behind them. It was some kind of business building. They ran through the offices and found another door on the other side as Jess had hoped. Jess reached it ahead of the others and tried it. It was boarded up from the other side.

"No!" Jess yelled, punching at the wall. She looked around and heard the others coming up behind her. She noticed a window down the hall from the door. She checked outside, nothing. She unlocked it and opened it just as she began to smell smoke.

"Come on guys, through here," she said climbing up.

The smoke alarms went off as they jumped through and ran down the alley. They quickly crossed through part of town and stopped to cool down a bit. The sun shone for about ten minutes but was soon covered by large dark grey clouds. It started raining only a few moments later.

"The rain should help with the fire," said Sarah.

"Yeah, with the fire out, it'll make travel around and out of the town easier," said Jess.

They rested for a moment before getting up and moving on. Jess and Leon walked side by side with Sarah trailing close behind. They quietly walked down the deserted sunlit streets. A slight breeze blew loose papers and trash across the roads and down alleys. The fire that burned half of the town roared with life, the smoke giving out a smoggy atmosphere. Smaller fires crackled and popped as the rain began to put them out. Nothing else moved. The group could hear the moans of far off creatures but nothing close. 

They came to another grocery store and walked in. They each took some food off the shelves and sat down to eat lunch.

Jess thought about Brad and when they had first met. It had been the end of Jess and Sarah's junior year in high school. She had seen Sarah and Brad together the whole day and had been really annoyed that her best friend hadn't even bothered to come say "hi" to her. 

When she had seen the two of them sitting together at the stream that cut through their schools' property at lunch, she decided to go say "hi" herself. Jess remembered walking up behind them very quietly and screaming "HI!" in their ears about as loud as she could when she was less then a foot behind them. She had startled them very badly and Brad had actually fallen into the stream.

Jess smiled at the memory and finished eating. She stood up and walked around, waiting for the others to finish. She hoped Sarah would be okay. Her and Brad had been inseparable since that day. She walked through the empty isles staring at the dirty, littered floor. She heard someone walking up behind her and turned around.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked her.

"Yeah I'm okay, how about you?" Jess answered.

"I'm okay. I'll be fine. Life goes on right?" Sarah said smiling weakly.

"Well… I guess but you just lost someone who was very close to you. It'll take a while to get over it," said Jess looking at Sarah.

"I know," Sarah answered looking away.

Jess put her arm around Sarah's shoulders and together they walked to where Leon stood waiting. They all picked up their things and walked out into the street once more. As they walked, they were met by increasing numbers of zombies and other creatures. They ran inside a large building to escape their fifth mob and rested.

"We'll spend the night here then," said Jess looking out one of the windows. They walked into a small room that had only one door and no windows. There was a brown sofa and two blue overstuffed chairs. Jess locked the door and they settled down for the night. Sarah fell asleep on the sofa, Jess and Leon slept on the chairs.

26

The next morning, Jess got up early, before Leon or Sarah. She walked out of the room and checked the road. The coast was clear for now. She walked back and sat down in her chair. She listened to the sounds of her companions' breathing.

She got up again and went through her gear. She didn't find anything missing and returned to her chair. Her thoughts went back to Brad and then to Alex. They were both gone now, would anyone else have to die? Who would it be?

"No," she said to herself. "I can't think like that." She sighed, closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

She woke up to screams, yelling and the sounds of dogs growling and barking in a room down the hall. She noticed that Leon and Sarah weren't in their room as she heard someone start shooting. She jumped up, grabbed her gun and ran out into the hall as both the screaming and the shooting stopped.

When she entered the new room, she was startled to see three zombie-dogs on top of Sarah and two more going after Leon who had run out of bullets. She quickly sent bullets into the brains of all the creatures who had decided to attack her instead.

Jess lowered her gun and ran to Sarah who lay motionless in a large pool of blood. She was dead. "No," said Jess sitting back. She and Sarah had lost Brad and now she had lost Sarah, the one person who ment everything to her.

Jess got back up, made sure that Sarah would rest in peace and walked back to the other room. Leon and Jess gathered their packs and crossed the street into another building, as it was pouring rain outside.

"I'm sorry Jess. We both walked out into different rooms. She was attacked before I ever got to where she was. I shot at them but ran out of ammo. I guess Sarah didn't have her gun on her. I'm sorry," said Leon.

"It's alright, there's nothing more you could have done," whispered Jess in reply. She grabbed Sarah's gun. "Let's go."

She followed Leon through the halls and rooms of the new building. Finally, they walked into a dusty old room and shut the door. There were no windows, let alone anything else inside except a few rags and old blankets. They each laid out a bed for themselves without a word.

Jess sat on her bed and faced the wall. She put her gun down and listened to Leon's movements. She shivered a little, as the room was cold.

For the first time, in a long time, she felt exhausted, depressed and alone. Her friends, the only people she'd had left, were gone forever. Silent tears ran down her cheeks as these thoughts went through her mind. She didn't bother to stop them from coming, wipe them away or even move; she just sat and stared at the wall. Many moments had passed when she heard Leon come up behind her and finally turned to try to hide her face.

Leon took off his jacket, put it over Jess' shoulders and sat down next to her. She hugged his jacket to her body and closed her eyes. It was warm, comforting. Leon reached, touched her chin and turned her head so that her eyes met his. He gently brushed away her tears. He said nothing; there was nothing to say. Their eyes told each other all they needed to hear. They slowly moved closer to one another, closed their eyes and kissed.

Jess stared into his eyes. He stared back at her and smiled. "Good night Jess," he said getting up.

"Good night Leon," she answered. She realized that for a moment, for just that one, great moment, she had forgotten where they were, what was going on, what had happened. She thought about that for a moment longer and smiled. Maybe she hadn't lost the only people she'd had left. She still had Leon.

Jess went to bed too but didn't immediately fall asleep. She thought about Brad and Sarah a while longer, then her thoughts turned to Leon before she finally drifted into a fitful sleep. 


	18. The Final Battle

27

Neither Jess nor Leon slept long. They got up early and walked out of the building. There was no one around.

"Do you want this back?" asked Jess talking about his jacket.

"Nah, it's a little cold out here. You keep it safe for me," he said.

She blushed, and smiled. They walked on, heading north towards the road, thankfully not running into much. That was until they turned the corner to face their escape route.

Just as they were beginning to feel freedom, they heard to low growl of something very large behind them. Slowly, they turned to lay eyes upon the B.O.W. They slowly backed away, keeping their eyes on the creature who was for the moment, busy disemboweling what used to be a dog. Throwing what was left of the rotten hunk of meat to the side, it locked its gaze on the two of them.

"Run. NOT in a straight line," Jess whispered to him seconds before she took off to the left, then to the right. 

Leon went the opposite way, first taking a right, then a left. The B.O.W. was confused for only a second before it made its move. With one giant leap, it landed heavily only feet from both of them. They turned and both fled down an alleyway, too skinny for the B.O.W. until it decided to plow through the brick walls in order to make way.

They ducked into a building and blocked the door with a partially tipped over bookcase. They knew it wouldn't stop the B.O.W. but it gave them a chance to find places to hide.

Leon pulled out the bazooka that he'd found at the police station. He had two shots left. Jess climbed inside an empty locker and shut it. Leon crouched behind a desk. They waited for the arrival of the inevitable crash of the crumbling brick wall. When it came, Leon rested the bazooka on the desk top and fired a shot at the creature. At the last second, it jumped and the round barely clipped it in the side. It roared in anger and flew at Leon, who ducked the blow. The B.O.W. went sailing over him and crashed into the wall on the other side.

Jess jumped out of the locker and ran toward the hole that the creature had left, with Leon close behind. The crossed a large lot and stopped on the other side. They turned and looked as the B.O.W. headed straight for them.

Leon got down on one knee and aimed. He pulled the trigger and the round met the B.O.W. head on at about the middle of the lot. The blast knocked both of them back, but they were ready and both were soon up again.

"Well, I guess that finishes it," Leon said.

"Yeah, now let's get out of here," Jess answered him. 

They made their way out of the lot and back onto the road they had been on. Suddenly, they heard a plane flying overhead. They looked up to see a jet drop a bomb on the other side of the city.

"Get down!" Leon yelled pushing her to the ground.

He lay on top of her, shielding her body just as the bomb went off in a deafening explosion. The ground shook for a moment before everything went silent again.

"Let's go, there'll be another one coming around soon," said Leon. They ran down the road and stopped as they came up on an ATV lot.

"Can you ride?" he asked turning to her.

Jess grinned. "Hell yeah! I'll be right back."

She ran into the dealership building and looked around. She saw what she was looking for and ran over to it. She broke open the little box that was mounted to the wall and picked up two keys from the hundreds that fell out. She ran back to where Leon was standing and knelt down as another bomb exploded on yet another part of the city.

"Here," she shouted, throwing him one of the keys. They each started up a four-wheeler, set them to fifth gear and rode off.

They shot at the occasional zombie that stepped in their way but didn't have too much trouble with any of the creatures as they drove along the road and out of Norrel.

They heard more jets and went faster. The explosions came soon after the sounds of the jets overhead and threatened to knock them off their four-wheelers. They drove up to the area where the rocks had blocked the road, shifted down to second gear and drove on. 

The rocks were piled up high. The pile rose nearly twenty feet from the original level of the road. They stopped when they made it to the top of the hill and got off of their four-wheelers. Leon was parked about fifteen feet ahead of Jess. They watched what was left of the city burn away.

The last jet flew over and dropped its bomb on the part of Norrel closest to them. They turned and ducked as it went off.

They got up and walked to their four-wheelers. Unexpectedly, the portion of rock that Jess was standing on and a large section above it gave way and began sliding downhill.

Rocks came down on her as she fell and landed painfully on the rocks below. She saw the four-wheeler come sliding down towards her, accompanied by more rocks before she blacked out.

28

"Jess!" Leon yelled.

He waited for a reply and when none came, he climbed down the rocks to where he had last seen her. It didn't take long before he found her; partly pinned underneath her four-wheeler and the rocks.

He pulled the rocks away and then lifted the four-wheeler off of her. She was still alive but was unconscious. He picked her up and carried her back to his four-wheeler and drove off the mound of rocks so they wouldn't have to worry about another slide. He drove down the road for a little while, then parked on the side of the road, took Jess down and began patching her up.

She had many deep cuts and bruises all over her body and a broken left wrist. Leon knew that she might have more injuries but had no way of knowing. He propped her up with the two backpacks that they had, made a small fire and waited for her to wake up. 


	19. Escape From Norrel's Demise

29

Jess woke to find herself laying on two packs somewhere in what she assumed was outside of Norrel. She tried to sit up but could barely move and decided against it. Her left arm and both legs were numb. She was dizzy and her head hurt immensely. Her sides ached with every breath she took. She also felt significantly nauseated.

"Leon?" she asked turning her head slowly.

"Yes? I'm here," he answered moving to her side. "How are you feeling?"

"Dizzy and my head's killing me. My left arm and legs are numb and I can't breathe without getting a sharp pain in my sides. Plus I feel really nauseated. Otherwise, everything's just great." She took a breath, and asked, "What happened anyway? I remember being on the rock hill when the last bomb went off, that's it."

"The rocks you were standing on collapsed after the blast and you were buried," Leon told her. "I dug you out and drove out here."

"Thanks. How far are we from Norrel?" asked Jess, attempting to shift a little.

"About five miles or so, we still have a long way to go," said Leon, helping her. "I don't want to leave until you have some of your strength back though."

"No. We should leave immediately. Besides, I'm not going to get any better just sitting here. We need to get going," replied Jess.

"Are you sure?" asked Leon.

"Yes. The sooner the better," came the stubborn reply.  
"Alright, I'll take the backpacks to the four-wheeler, and then get you."

Leon slowly took the packs out from behind her and secured them on the vehicle. Jess winced with the pain of the movement and took a deep breath. The feeling in her arm and her legs was returning, giving her more pain. 

Leon came back and knelt down beside her. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," she replied.

She put her right arm around his neck, he put his left arm around her waist and they slowly rose together. Her head swam a great deal and her right leg wouldn't support any weight. Suddenly her dizziness and pain overtook her. She leaned over and heaved.

"Sorry about that," she said regaining her composure. "How embarrassing," she uttered under her breath.

"That's okay. Take it easy," he replied having heard both remarks.

They slowly made their way to the four-wheeler. Leon got on and then lifted Jess on to the seat in front of him.

"Hold on as tight as you can, and stay with me," Leon said to her as he turned on the engine.

As they drove, Jess clung to him as best she could. She felt very tired and was in a lot of pain. She knew that the ride back was nearly five hours long going 65 miles per hour the whole way from the bus ride in but she felt her strength dissolve with every passing minute. Before the first hour on the road was up, she was struggling to stay awake.

Leon sensed this and drove faster. He began to talk to her, trying to keep her awake. She was responsive and talked back, weakly. They were able to get by two more hours doing this and finally came up on a house.

Leon parked the four-wheeler in the driveway, made sure Jess would be okay for a few moments alone and ran to the porch. He pounded on the door until a young woman with blonde hair opened the door.

"Sorry to disturb you ma'am but do you have a phone? I close friend of mine has been hurt really badly and needs help," he said to the lady.

"Yes come in, the phone is down the hall in the living room," said the lady, looking at his blood stained shirt.

Leon ran inside, picked up the phone and dialed. He arranged to have a helicopter pick them up and hung up. He ran back outside and told Jess the news. Twenty minutes later they heard the helicopter and watched it land. Leon carried Jess to it and they flew off toward home. 


	20. Epilogue

Epilogue

1

Jess and Leon both spent six weeks in the hospital in Fairbanks. Jess had suffered a severe concussion, a fractured right leg, a broken left wrist, six broken ribs and had needed many stitches for the numerous gashes she had received.

When they were discharged, Leon made a full report to his agency and a few days later went to Jess' home for a barbeque.

"So, where do you live?" Jess asked him. They sat down on the wooden bench in her front yard to eat.

"No where really. I go wherever my agency makes me. I tend to move around a lot," he replied.

"Huh, at least my old agency let me have my own home. Tell you what, I have an extra room, you can live here if you like. That's if you're agency will allow it," said Jess.

"Really? Are you sure?" he asked looking at her.

"Of course. Besides, I'd like to… get to know you a little better," replied Jess smiling.

"Thanks," said Leon.

The two of them kissed, got up and walked inside together.

2

Rowley drove down the road in silence. The suitcase sitting next to him held the last few vials of the virus and anti-virus. 

It wouldn't be long before he could set up again. He would be back and he would get revenge on those who had taken his plans away from him. Soon. 


End file.
